If you’ve done much reading on this blog, you know that I love to cook and eat delicious foods.

Unfortunately, they’re not all the healthiest choices.

We’re focusing on eating a bit cleaner, so I made a list of healthful snacks we should try to have on hand.

On the list was granola bars. But do you know what??? They’re not all healthy!

Some of the granola bars you can buy in stores may as well be candy bars, with the amount of sugar and “fluff” they include in their ingredients. And most of them (except Kashi) also have high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. Disgusting.

While I love Kashi granola bars, my husband and I tend to go through a bunch of those, so it gets pretty expensive. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

After reading tons of granola bar recipes (and throwing out the ones that sounded like disguised candy), I came up with my own healthy granola bar recipe that works wonderfully well. If I eat half of one of these and a small piece of fruit, I’m good to go for several hours.

And it makes me happy knowing that I didn’t eat anything disgusting to feel full.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. (I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it looks so pretty!) By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.

Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the parchment paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compress it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled. Then, open the parchment …

And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the parchment.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of parchment paper (so they don’t stick together).

Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they’re what we had, but next time I’m going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars. Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.

Or try dried cranberries, walnuts, and white chocolate chips (just a few). I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix. Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too.

Mmm… So many options! Good thing we have time!

What will be your favorite version of this healthy granola bar recipe?

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.

By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid "glue," and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you're finished with it now.

Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the "glue" gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula. Now fold over the sides of the parchment paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compress it together so that your bars won't fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Then, open the paper and carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you'd like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of parchment paper (so they don't stick together).

Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they're what we had, but next time I'm going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars.Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.Or try dried cranberries, walnuts, and white chocolate chips (just a few).I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix.Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too. Mmm...So many options! Good thing we have time!

660 Comments on Healthy Granola Bar Recipe – Homemade

[…] Healthy Granola Bar Recipe – Homemade – Joyful Abode – I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix. Different flavors of honey would also. A no bake granola bar! All you did with your. I used 1/2c 'natural. […]

[…] If you’re looking for a mid afternoon pick-me-up, fruit and nut bars are a great option! There are so many options to choose from when buying your bars but, but why no make your own? This way you can add all your favourite things but still monitor the ingredients that go into your bars. You can find two great healthy fruit and nut bar recipes here and here. […]

Very good! I searched google using images and chose your recipe purely based on looks! And they came out perfect….slightly chewy….and good flavor. I made some changes only because I didnt have sunflower seeds or wheat germ…instead added pistachios and sesame seeds….now I am handing them out to everyone and hearing all good comments! THANK YOU!!

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These are delicious. I changed it up a little by adding walnuts and almonds and also adding flaxseed powder, wheat germ and chia seeds. Worked out fine.
Would like to know how to print this recipe without the pictures though, as I would like to send it to a friend. Need a print friendly link.
Thanks

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I make these for my house as after-school and during work… and before dinner… or before breakfast snacks. I made them for today’s work potluck, and I can’t even tell you how many compliments they’ve gotten. I use Craisins and mixed nuts instead of just peanuts. I added mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to half a batch as well. I’m glad I made 2 batches because they are a HUGE hit. I’ve shared this page with everyone who has asked for the recipe. Thanks!

I’ve been looking for an easy, healthy granola bar recipe to send with my daughter for her school snack (she gets nauseous in the mornings so this is technically her breakfast so I want it to be packed with nutrition). Is there a way to decrease the brown sugar without altering the composition of the bars? I haven’t tried the recipe yet, so maybe I will just decrease the sugar by half and hope for the best.

THESE are DELICIOUS!!! the first time i made them mine were dry and crunchy becasue i boiled the honey mixture i think too long as i was multi tasking so they went hard…second time i heated the mixture just till it started boiling and it was much better!! i think there like puffed wheat squared etc where if you heat the “glue” too long they are hard and crunchy!! THANKS for the recipe!

I made 2 batches of these for my college son to take back to school. I followed the recipe yet the bars came out very dry and crumbly. They have good flavor but they aren’t moist at all. Add more honey/butter? More dried fruit (I used dried cranberries)? Don’t pack it down so hard? I really want a good recipe for the family but they won’t eat it if it doesn’t look/feel like the store bought crap. haha

Thank you so much for this great recipe! I made it for the first time today.. and being me.. changed things out. I only used the agave for sweetener, used natural peanut butter for the butter, threw in some Rice Cereal, and some coconut and hazel nuts.. added a small amount of chocolate chips at the end after they were “smooshed” together in the pan and starting to cool. IF I had left it alone after that I wouldn’t have swirls of chocolate over the top of my granola bars.. hmms… maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing anyway eh? 🙂 Delicious! They will definitely be on my list of “need to makes”

Great recipe, have been making it for the last 9 months or so, once a week like clockwork. Great snack to have, and usually cut the tray up into 15 individual bars, snacking on one or two every day. At this point, I no longer need to look at the recipe, and can make them quickly and easily in no more than about 25 minutes, which includes the 15 minutes I let the dry ingredients toast lightly for.

Over time, I have tweaked and and modified your original recipe a little, as per my own individual tastes. All dry ingredients remain the same, save for bumping the nuts and seeds up to a cup full, and the addition of coconut (about 1/4 of a cup). Aside from those two modifications, I also add just the barest and slight dusting of cinnamon, and the barest pinch of dried ginger, for an imperceptible, but little boost to the flavour, without ever tasting cinnamon or ginger in the bars.

With the wet ingredients, I halved the sugar from 2/3’s of a cup to 1/3 of a cup, in addition to bringing the honey down from 1/2 of a cup to 1/3 of a cup also. I also cut the vanilla from 2 teaspoons to 1 teaspoon. This I find gives me a lovely bar, which is not too sweet, yet far tastier than just eating toasted oats, nuts and seeds.

The above changes do not affect the cohesion of the bars for me, but I do two or three key things. Namely, mix the ingredients when they are just finishing cooking, as I usually time the toasting of the dry, and the melting of the wet, to coincide, as I mix the wet into the dry in the hot toasting pan. Straight into the tray lined with parchment paper, and I do some serious pressing down, to endure it is as compact as possible. To this end, I will use a smaller tray, and use this to move around, and press down on the mix as firmly as I can. Lastly, I will bung the tray of bars straight into the fridge for several hours (sometimes overnight if I am not waiting on cutting/ eating the bars until the following morning). This was I find when I cut the bars straight out of the fridge, they cut easily and cleanly, and much better than at room temperature. Then, I simply store all the bars in an air tight container at room temperature, where those 15 little square bars do not last long 🙂

Oh, will add to the above, I omit the dried fruit entirely, as I found it did not help in making a bar that held together well. At least that was my experience.

Will also add, to give me the best nutritional blend, I use a mix of sunflower, pumpkin, and then a little sesame seeds, for my seed mix. The sunflower and pumpkin will give you a nice mix of omega 3 & 6, rather than just one or the other. Re: nuts, I will usually use 2 different types of nuts, in my case flaked almonds and chopped hazelnuts, as they are easy to get here.

Lastly, I replaced the wheat germ with oat bran, when I was seeking to cut any gluten from my diet a while back, and it worked fine. The oat bran I have I find a little sweet though, so do not add much, maybe a tablespoon or two.

I make these all the time!!! My family loves them. I’ve found that wax paper (even when greased) still sticks to the granola bars, so I use parchment paper instead. The parchment paper comes off easy every time.

I have made this twice in a two week period. I add coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds or pecans to my mixture. Will never bring boxed granola again! Delicious! Great in yogurt, ice-cream, or just plain.

I first saw the photo of these Granola bars on Pinterest, they look so good that you just feel like eating them!

When I read your post, I can really relate to it. We use to buy bars, snacks, etc from the supermarkets but not that much anymore. It is just scary to see the amount of sugar content in each pack. I have never tried making granola bars before but will surely give it a go.

I noticed your name and it made me think of one of my daughter’s children’s books, “Rina at the Farm”. Rina, it transpires, is a fox (who likes to make mischief)! Maybe it’s past my bedtime and my brains are scrambled, but I think that’s pretty neat!

I’ve used this recipe twice now, and each time it has turned out amazing! I add a couple of scoops of chunky peanut butter to the “glue” mixture, and it tastes great with all the other flavors. I’ve also tried toasted coconut flakes, toasted whole almonds, dried cherries, currants and blueberries, and dark chocolate chips. The only problem is I can’t seem to keep these in the house for very long – my husband and son DEVOUR them. We will be making these bars for a long time to come!

Thanks for great recipe! I enjoyed making it, added other types of nuts & dates. It came to loads of bars! I will leave out the salt & vanilla next time, husband found those flavours bit overpowering. Cheers

I am making these again this weekend! I used Splenda Brown Sugar in place of brown sugar, coconut oil in place of butter, no salt, added pumpkin seed, chia seed, slivered almonds, fresh dehydrated cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, raisins, and I added some of my (no sugar) Whey Protein powder! They turned out perfect! I did use Parchment paper instead of wax paper because I was told it sticks to wax paper. I also doubled my recipe.

I also put sesame seed in as well. I dehydrated all my own fresh fruit so there wasn’t any added sugar except for natural from fruit itself! I also toasted for a couple minutes longer than the recipe calls for a more toasted taste.

Thanks Heather for the delish tips!:) I want to opt out sugar completely next time as bars are bit on the sugary side for me with both the honey & sugar. Hope mixture will still bind together well. I did use sesame, but went overboard I think as it overtook all the other nut flavours. I will keep making these, can’t keep my hands off them everyday after workout! Cheers

just made these for the third time, I made a few adjustments,no fruit, and a layer of mini chocolate chips on top, and they are absolutely delicious 🙂 I make a batch, and have them for breakfast and lunch every day 🙂 I love how simple the recipe is.

I made these last weekend and they are amazing! My kids loved them! I made them with dried cranberries and chopped dried peaches. When could I add mini chocolate chips? I tried after they cooled a bit but they still melted. Such a great healthy snack and easy to pack in a lunch! In my quest to buy less packaged “stuff” and to have more natural ingredients, this is exactly what I was looking for!

These are setting up right now! I didn’t have any sunflower seeds, so I used a bit more peanuts and wheat germ than the recipe calls for and I also added some ground flax seed. I made everything else according to the recipe. my husband and I are going camping this weekend and I didn’t want to buy store bought granola bars, for both frugal and health reasons. these smell awesome and I can’t wait to try them!

Hey. Great recipe there. I was wondering can I successfully make a granola bar without the butter? Can I substitute it with olive oil instead or better still, totally oil free? I only afraid that if i omit the butter then the bar pieces wont stick and form a bar.

Just made these, with a few substitutions… We are peanut and tree-nut free in our house, so I used a cup total of chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds and pepinos, and for dried fruit I used chopped apricots, dried cherries and raisins. Then after I cut the bars I drizzled some dark chocolate over the top. Yum! But next time I think I need more oats or less honey- my bars are very sticky and soft. Maybe they just need to dry out overnight before I wrap them.

Try 300° for 20-25 minutes. This recipes closely mimics Alton Brown’s that I make. They are crunchy for a while, but if you live in a humid climate like I do, they may need a little time back in the oven after a couple days. Drizzle the chocolate after they are cooled. Hope this helps.

How long will these last. Looking for something to snack on while traveling to spain in a couple of weeks. Looks yummy!!!
Can’t hear to hear back from you. Going to run to the health food store to get some wheat germ.

I’ve forgotten about these and had them sitting around for two months and they were still good. That said, I made them with oil rather than butter, but I also like the taste better that way. I had the butter ones for up to 3 weeks before I finished them, and they were still good then.

Made these about 5 hours ago but I didn’t have any wheat germ and used fiber one cereal in it’s place lol but They taste wonderful. Will make these again for sure and pick up some wheat germ in the mean time.

Made these yesterday to take on a 10 day bike trip across Europe . Just wondering how long they will keep? Will take one on a practise ride today. Couldn’t find wheatgerm so just left it out- still tastes great. Thanks

I’ve substituted a variety of ingredients. For a sweeter taste, try adding vanilla sugar instead of extract. Also, by mixing toffee bits instead of dried fruit adds a nice way to get kids to eat it (especially if they don’t like “wrinkled” fruit).

I just made these. I did not have wheat germ on hand, so I used shredded coconut instead. I agree with not being able to get healthy granola bars and am excited for this recipe. They are setting up right now! You should add a Pinterest button so I can pin these 🙂

Just made the granola bars and they’re the best ones I’ve made so far. this is definitely a keeper, I’ll be making these again for sure. Might cut down on the honey or brown sugar those. They were a tad to sweet for me.

I cannot wait to try your recipe…we too just started noticing how UN-healthy the “healthy” granola bar section can be. Money saving green tip for you – save the bags from your cereal, use them wherever you would use waxed paper.

Can these be frozen? Or at least refrigerated to keep more than a week? I don’t really LIKE to cook but more and more I’m making things from scratch since I have some minor heath probs that I don’t want to get worse and my kids are young and want to instill in them healthier eating habits than I had as a child– but I won’t want to spend every weekend making these if they won’t keep more than a week. (but if forced…I will 🙂 since they love the packaged kind and I need to stop buying them)
Thanks!

I’m sure you’ve since discovered your answer, but in case it helps others – I’ve kept mine in airtight containers for up to 2 weeks, when I’ve made 2 batches at a time. Am not sure about freezing them, and if in an airtight container, do not see the need to keep them in the fridge, at least if you only need them to keep for 2 weeks.

[…] Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned. Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray. Homemade Granola Bar Recipe – (No high fructose corn syrup in these bars!) | Joyful Abode […]

I have been baking these granola bars for over a year now and I never get sick of them! I have shared the recipe with so many friends and family members that they have taken on a life of themselves. Thank you for the basics for which my circle has grown 🙂

Thank you so much for such a fantastic recipe. I’ve been wanting to make my own granola/energy bars for years but have been a little lazy. With the discovery of GMO products being in my usual brand of granola bars and a gift of homemade bars, I got off my duff. Your recipe is easy to follow, and I used a combination of nuts (almond, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds) and dried fruit (raisins, cherries, dates) that I had laying around the house. I just tried them, and they are great! Thanks again.

I can see why some people may have had challenges with them crumbling. You have to take your time ensuring ALL the stuff is coated with the honey-glue AND you also have to make sure you are making these bars thick enough…too thin and all the coating in the world will not allow them to stick together.

My method yielded me 16 decent sized bars, although I can probably stretch it to 20. This is the first time I made them, and I used dark brown sugar and Old Fashioned (not quick cook) oats; I will probably stick with that combo as I like how it came out and the whole dried cranberries really brought it over the top.

This is going to be easy and fun to experiment with. Thanks so much for this fantastic recipe!!

I just made these, and they’re sitting in the pan cooling right now. It all smelled SO good and I tasted a little bit of the warm mixture… I have a new go-to granola bar recipe. It was wonderful! I did make a few changes according to item prices and my preferences. Instead of wheat germ, I used ground flax seed as I already had some on hand. Wheat germ here is also over $4, and I didn’t want to spend that. I substituted almonds (unsalted, coarsely chopped) for the peanuts, and the flavor they get from being toasted is really what makes these so good! For my brown sugar, I used homemade which took 5 minutes to whip up and it’s also very flavorful. (1 cup of regular sugar and 1-2 Tbl molasses, for anyone that’s curious. Just whisk it together until it’s clump free!) My final alteration was just 2 Tbl natural peanut butter and then 2 Tbl regular margarine instead of all butter. Craisins were my fruit of choice, too. Oh, and I left out the salt. I’ll definitely be making these often!

I’ve made these several times and love them. The first time they worked out great but each subsequent time, they fell apart unless I kept them refrigerated. This time I replaced the butter with oil and put a book and a 15-lb weight on them when they were cooling. I like the flavor better (and I generally like butter) and they’re holding together!

Instead of regular butter, try using mana coconut butter, great texture and added coconut flavour. I also opted out of wheat germ and replaced it with flax seed powder.
These granola bars are super easy to make make a great (healthy) snack for when your on outdoor adventures. yumm

Just finished wrapping these, such a strength of will not to just eat them all!! I swapped out wheat germ for wheat flakes, guessed amounts and used cinnamon and masses of fruit, and its so good!! Cant wait to show them off tomorrow at work!!

I stumbled upon your blog searching for homemade granola recipes – for the same reasons you cited! I just finished making yours – varied the peanuts to cashews and the van. extract to almond extract (because that’s what was on hand). AMAZING! So good. Thanks so much!

I just made your granola bar recipe and would like to ask about decreasing the honey. I love the recipe but find it a little too sweet. What is a substitute for honey? Or, could I mix honey, gava, brown rice syrup, or others to help with the glue?
This is a wonderful recipe and I can see so many different possibilities when substituting different ingredients for variety but I’m not quite sure how to change the glue!
Thanks,
Lynn

Thank you SO much for this recipe. I just made them and they came out awesome! I will need to let them set longer next time though, so they don’t crumble as much. But I just couldn’t wait to try them 🙂 Thanks again!

I was wondering if I could make these without the fruit and they’d still stick together. For myself, I love the recipe and will make it for me. But I want to make some for my grandkids’ school lunches and they don’t care for dried fruit (yet). Thanks.

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I did this change that I want share with you guys in order to have the Super Healthy Granola Bars. As you may know, sugar has a lot of chemicals involved in process ( the browm sugar too), so I decided to change it to Panela (sugar cane juice extract) difficult to get it in the states, but if you have a Colombian store near you, you will find it there. This powder, doesn’t have any chemical and has all the benefits and more than regural sugar.

I did this change that I want share with you guys in order to have the Super Healthy Granola Bars. As you may know, sugar has a lot of chemicals involved in process ( the browm sugar too), so I decided to change it to Panela (sugar cane juice extract) difficult to get it in the states, but if you have a Colombian store near you, you will find it there. This poweder, doesn’t have any chemical and has all the benefits and more than regural sugar.

Thank you so much for this recipe! I was looking around for an easy-to-make, yet healthy, granola bar and think I have found it! I always read through comments on recipe websites. Once I saw that people added less sugar, less butter, I definitely did the same. Let me tell you, with adding less, they are still so sweet! It’s not a bad thing since it gets my man to eat them, but I definitely have been adding less butter and less sugar each time I make these. Awesome!!

[…] dairy. Not easy to find. Many, many recipes use that condensed milk combo. I finally found one at Joyful Abode called Homemade Granola Bars. The syrup that holds these bars together is dairy free – and […]

Hi, I love your recipe and your directions and pictures are great. But sometimes you just need to buy some really healthy all-natural nutrition bars that are made of real fruits, grains, nuts, seeds with no preservatives, additives or sweeteners. they sell a terrific selection at enutritionbars.com and their prices are reasonable.

Hi, I love your recipe and your directions and pictures are great. But sometimes you just need to buy some really healthy all-natural nutrition bars that are made of real fruits, grains, nuts, seeds with no preservatives, additives or sweeteners. they sell a terrific selection at enutritionbars.com and they discount the prices.

I am excited to try your recipe! I have a granola recipe adapted from Prevention magazine in the 1970’s. I use 1/4 cup of honey, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/4 cup canola oil to about 5-6 cups of dry ingredients, so I question the need for the sugar and butter. I would strongly suggest adding 1 T of cinnamon!

I’m still waiting for these to finish cooling but if they taste as good as my kitchen smelled while making them this is going to be my new favorite recipe! I didn’t have peanuts so I did 1/2 cup of flax seeds instead. I also used only 1/2 cup of brown sugar and for the honey I did a mixture of 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup light agave nectar. I also had about a 1/4 bag of chocolate chips lying around so I threw those in mix too and used a bag of mixed fruit containing dried blueberries, cherries, cranberries and golden raisins. This recipe was super easy I am so glad I stumbled upon it!

These granola bars are fabulous! I followed the recipe as written except used almonds, instead of peanuts, added unsweetened coconut flakes, also ground flax seed for some of the wheat germ. Fun to try different nut/fruit combinations. Chewy, satisfying and not too sweet…definitely worth the effort. My boyfriend begs me to make these for him to take to work for a snack. Thanks for a great recipe..definitely a keeper!

This recepe is excellent. I prepared so many bathces. I used almonds,and pistachios instead of peanuts, reduce amount of butter, and sugar, remove salt(no salt). Added ground flaxseeds, black sesame seeds. For the fruits I used dates, cranbery, and cherry. It is very easy to prepare. It is healthy, less sugar, no salt, less butter.

These are amazing! I’ve made several batches in the past few weeks and have shared the recipe countless times. My favorite so far is chocolate cherry with almonds, but I also really like the recipe with macadamia nuts, papaya, mango, coconut (toasted along with the rest of the dry ingredients), and pineapple. Thanks for sharing!

those look so good. i just made some using my own recipe. i took a few packets of oatmeal and mixed it with a package of pumkin flax seed granola. added in some nuts and toasted coconut. then to glue it together mixed in some nutela and maple syrup. they are so yummy.

I really like this recipe, it tastes great! I did have a problem with the wax paper though…I don’t see anyone else posting this so I don’t know if I did something wrong. When trying to get the wax paper off after it cooled for a couple of hours it wanted to stick really back. Didn’t get all of it off of some of it. Did I do something wrong?

Hello. In my opinion, the recipe was good. To improve it, I added flax seed and cocoa powder mixed with mik and butter till thick enough and sweetened with sugar. I changed brown sugar to normal sugar and it tastes 101% better.It was good but now its excellent!
Try it too and tell me!

I made mine with cashews, almonds, walnuts, and pecans instead of peanuts and sunflower seeds. I think as long as you keep the proportions of dry hard to dry soft to “liquid glue” the same, you can basically make any combo you want! I’ve reposted to my facebook page and can’t wait to try different combos. Thanks for the amazing recipie!

A no bake granola bar! All you did with your oven was to toast your oats and nuts mixture. This is perfect for me, because our oven broke down just recently and so no baked treats for me for the meantime. I have to agree with the granola bars being candies. The ones we get from the groceries are packed with loads of sugar, so, always check the nutrition facts before getting them. I’ll have to try this recipe with rolled oats and raisins, or perhaps prunes so it’ll be gluten free too

My family really liked these. They were still a little crumbly even after we pushed them down with a pan.
I used peanuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, coconut, and raisins in mine. I also used a little less brown sugar and I thought they were still too sweet. I think next time I’ll add some peanut butter and cut down on the brown sugar.

These do look amazing, although people need to be careful with these. They are healthy in the way that they are made with natural ingredients, and have good fats in them, they also have an extremely high amount of fat, these are not bars to eat if you are trying to lose weight. They’re good for active people that are just trying to maintain. Although nuts contain good fats, a couple handfuls contain all the fat you should be eating in one day. Sunflower seeds are also extremely high in fat. I just thought I should mention this to help people that are trying to lose weight. All of this being said I intend to make and eat the hell out of these bars

Alright, I figured out if you cut these into 12 bars, which it looks like that is what she has done, they have 350 calories, 15 grams of fat and 50 carbs per bar. Over 2/3 of the carbs come from sugars, over 2/3 of the fat and 1/3 of the calories come from the nuts and sunflower seeds. Dried fruit also contains high amounts of calories and sugar carbs. Honey has no redeeming qualities, it has almost identical nutritional data to light corn syrup. These bars should not be snacks, they should be whole meal replacements or fuel if going on a long hike or run

I graze on these all day long, because I know exactly what I’m putting into them, if you use old fashioned oats, raw honey, this honey has tons of antioxidents, so there are great qualities when it comes to honey, if they used back in biblical times for so many uses, it’s good enough for me (never use the honey from the regular stores it’s so processed and heated to such high temps that all of the quality nutrients are striped away, and use good nuts with no salt added and at times skip the fruits or do just rasins you’re good to go on these bars. Lets just say anything homemade without the use of high fructose corn syrup or all of the other ingriedents you nor I can pernounce or even know what it is, is pretty darn good and ok to eat. My kids love them, and I’ve handed this recipe to tons of friends after they see me or one of my kids snacking on one of these. Thanks for such a great resipe and it’s something I make once a week along with othere homemade things.

Oh and also adding in flax seed also does the body good, I’ve even added in natural peanut butter to the “glue” mixture it really takes the taste to another level, and adding dark chocolate chunks to it makes them super yummy….this is only added everyother time I make these!

Thanks for the recipe. I put in peanut butter instead of the butter for a peanut butter flavor. I can’t keep it in the house. My hubby grabs and takes them to work, too, and my picky 6 yo will eat them. A hit, thanks. Bye bye whatever is in store bought.

Sounds great, just like a bunch of others I have seen. My only complaint is every granola bar recipe I see doesn’t give nutritional information, and if it does, it only says how many calories per serving and doesn’t tell you what that serving size is. anyone have a good granola bar recipe with full nutritional info (including serving size)????

Hi! I just came across this recipe while googling “homemade granola bars.” We tried these yesterday and they are delicious! I like some of your suggestions too for variations and can’t wait to try them again.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. You take beautiful photos!
-Molly

Your granola bar recipe is AWESOME! My children love it and I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to share your recipe with others. Do you have any other recipes that you’ve posted? I would love to try others.

Stephanie – you can access recipe calculators online…you just add the ingredients for your recipe and your servings and it calculates the nutrition…I got 310 calories/bar for this recipe, which is pretty good if you’re using it for a whole meal *breakfast for me* =)

They will stay for at least a couple of weeks, all though, you won’t have to worry, because there gone in less than a week in our home, I make them once a week, I send them with my husband for a snack and with my 7yr old to school. I love these.

Great recipe. Instead of the stevia, splenda, or sugar, I used Organic Blue Agave Nectar. As with another responder, I also used the coconut oil. My first batch (sliced almonds, coconut, oats, cherries, and cinnamon) didn’t have the “glue” to hold it all together- so, it is in an air-tight container and it will be used as a topping for yogurt or for fresh fruit cup. I’ll keep trying different combinations until I get a bar consistency.

LOVE these! Have made them 4 times in the past two weeks, as my kids and husband keep devouring them – also have a batch of grains in the oven right now.

I’ve been adding an extra 3/4 cup of oats, as there’s a bit too much sugar/syrup for my taste. Also adding bran, ground flax seeds, and current batch is loaded with pecans – which makes it taste even more like candy! I also replace the butter with coconut oil.

Hello, I just read your program on granola bar (no HFCS).
Did you know that some cereal box have HFCS? EHH..
My husband can’t have peanuts but it can be soynut put in it for better nutrition (or soynut butter). Could you send this recipe to my e-mail address, thanks. I did read the first one with coconuts & coconut oil GF granola but I can’t have it because of chol. problem. The kids with braces, tried to put them in blender with milk or soy milk,or fruit juice how about that?

WOW!!! Loved these bars! My husband and son really have been eating them up too. I used walnuts and ground flaxseed, dried cranberries, and raisins, and peanuts. This is too delicious for words. Wonder about the calories on these. They are super easy to make, and I am looking forward to many variations as time goes on. Thank you!!

The granola bar recipe looks delicious. I will be trying when I get home from Texas. Please send me the recipe at my email address. I saw it on facebook but don’t want to have to try to retrieve it from there, when I get home. Thank you.
Laurie Allen

I’ve been looking for a recipe to make granola bars similar to the ones I used to love to get at my local coffee shop. I eat gluten free, so I wanted to make my own just to be sure they were made 100% GF.

This recipe worked great! I made mine with walnuts, raisins, flaxseeds and sesame seeds (love the toasted sesame seed flavor!) I also added chocolate chips, which ended up melting and spreading throughout the granola bar. Not quite what I was going for! But, still delicious.

I used 2.5 cups of GF oats, 1/2 cup of GF brown rice cereal, 1/2 cup of raisins, 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup of walnuts… and honestly I’m not sure how much flaxseed or sesame I added. I think I ended up putting in 1/8 cup flax, and 1/4 cup sesame.

I also toasted mine on the stove top. Just put it in a big pan over medium high heat and keep stirring!

good recipe and much better than store bought processed.
I’ve been doing similar way with ground flax seeds,raw almonds and walnuts, with mixing it up between 85-90% cocao semi-sweet dark chocolate bits,dried cranberries and raisens.

I start with creamy raw almond nut butter in a saucepan on low very heat,then add raw honey and maple syrup,vanilla extract,cinammon,molasses,stevia natural sweetner mix thoroughly and then add walnuts (after put thru food processor)and then whatever combination of dried fruit and/or dark chocolate I feel like having.
I also will use some natural/unsweetnend applesauce at times.

I would recommend molasses and stevia (natural sweetner) instead of brown sugar for a bit more healthier alternative and I use raw nuts instead of wheat. much better to stay away from wheat and sugars as much as possible…especially refined and processed types.

also to those I see using the artificial sweetner splenda as a substitute,u should go with stevia instead.the price is a bit more but worth it health wise for its purity and u dont need nearly as much (about 1/2 as much) for sweetness. especially in this recipe that has honey and molasses (or brown sugar)….hope thats helpful

I have never made granola bars for and having dying to find a good recipe. I must have searched through 2 dozen recipes before I decided to give this one a try. And boy am I glad I did!! I altered it a little bit due to the taste of my sister and what I had on hand. I did 1 1/2 cups crushed pecans, omitted the sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, subbed 2 tbsp canola oil for the butter, and added cinnamon and cloves. They are delicious! The bars are chewy and airy and dont sit in your stomach! They are perfect for breakfast with yogurt or a snack. Thank you!!!

My wife and I tried a slight variation of this recipe for the first time today. The bars are still cooling, but our first taste test indicates we have a winner!!! I know you said to wait until they cool before cutting, but I couldn’t resist sneaking a bite from the warm and chewy corner Thanks for sharing.

Ground flax seed!!! This way you get the health benefits because your body can not digest whole flax seed. I tried this recipe and changes a few things to my families liking: ground flax seed, raw honey (much better for you than the kind you get in the store-try a farmers market), a few dark chocolate chips on top when I pressed down, instead of peanuts I crushed up almonds…with these changes my family can’t get enough!!! They asking for me to make more all ready! Thanks for the help!!! Keep the yummy ideas coming!!

I made these for my family yesterday, and they’re already almost gone. Absolutely delicious. I used dried apricots, and I plan on trying other combination of nuts/dried fruit. I also used splenda brown sugar, so I only used 1/2 the suggested amount.

I am going to sub. peanuts for pumpkin seeds – I have two DDs with peanut and tree nut allergies. I also thought about adding chocolate chips and flax seed to the receipe. Do you have an idea/suggestion how much of each? Also, I will be using ground flax seed vs. whole. Do you have a preference and why?

It was my first time making something like that . Granola bars are not popular at all in Lithuania ( Where I am from ) , so I decided to make those as I saw in USA . This recipe is basic and very good , I changed something and it worked very well for me . It is not a diet thing at all because of sugar , honey and oats . But nothing what is delicious is diet 😉 still awesome stuff instead of cookies , cakes , candies or something like that ;),.f

It was my first time making something like that . Granola bars are not popular at all in Lithuania ( Where I am from ) , so I decided to make those as I saw in USA . This recipe is basic and very good , I changed something and it worked very well for me . It is not a diet thing at all because of sugar , honey and oats . But nothing what is delicious is diet 😉 still awesome stuff instead of cookies , cakes , candies or something like that 😉

thanks. I’m not looking for low calorie for me, just needed a snack to take with me to a meeting, to celebrate monthly birthdays 😀 I love the fact that they don’t have HFCS in them though or aspartame. 😀

I am a health-conscious teenager who has been on a long-time health kick. After joining our high school’s Nutrition Club, I set out to rid our house of HFCS. One of my favorite snack is granola bars, but it appalled me how much junk was in store-bought ones. I found this recipe, and I LOVE IT! I don’t like dried fruit, but I’ve found I can substitute a mix of almonds, pecans and walnuts. I have given the recipe to tons of people(my grandma likes using dried cranberries) and just today I tried putting chocolate chips in it-which turned out great. The only suggestions I have is lowering the oven temp to 345 degrees because the wheat germ burns too easily; I use a nut-chopper to chop my peanuts-it makes it a finer consistency; and if you buy salted peanuts/sunflower seeds to reduce or completely remove the salt for the ‘glue'(it can make the bars kinda dry) Thank you for sharing this WONDERFUL recipe with the health-nuts of the world 😀

Wow. I mean really…wow! I made these and one other recipe I found and have selfishly decided that my kids get to eat up the other recipe and that these are ALL for me. Love the was paper to-go tip! Thank you for sharing this little treasure with the world. Because seriously…yum.

I just made these again and realized that I’ve never commented and thanked you for this recipe. My husband and I love these. We skip the sunflower seeds (not a fan of them in granola), and instead added 1/2 cup of ground flaxseed. We use a mix of craisins and raisins. For this latest batch I used pecans, but in the past I’ve used slivered almonds, too. There’s really no way to screw these bars up.

I have been making these since august VERY frequently with a few changes. One, 1 1/2 c of almonds and I have been using mixed dried fruit of cranberries and apricots with a two to one ratio of appricots to cranberries. I use foil instead of wax paper, less peeling off to do. Also I heat the carmel to right in between a soft and hard stage 230 degrees.
my other variation is a chocolate batch, with almonds, I use instead of fruit 8 oz of dark chocolate chips. In both versions I have also added protein powder, two scoops in each batch. These last about 2 weeks or freeze really well if you wrap them individually and bag in zip loc!

Fantastic!!! These are better than any store bought bar I’ve ever had. I did cut them into smaller bars to cut the calories a bit. They’re great for having right before a workout; you get your protein and carbs to sustain. I did have a problem with the paper sticking on the top while cooling – just stray that too and problem solved. I also cut the brown sugar in half to make them a bit less sweet. I’ll be adding flaxseed the next batch and trying different nuts just for variety. This will be a permanent recipe in my kitchen! Thanks.

[…] Granola bars – Granola bars can be a great snack if you watch the ingredient list – look for lower sugar, higher fiber options. Or make your own! My family enjoys this recipe from Joyful Abode. […]

Great recipe! Tried it as described and it worked–however, here are two things I discovered:
The waxed paper stuck miserably to the bottom portion of the granola: Solve this by running the bottom of the granola and it’s stuck waxed paper over the burner on my stove top (if electric burner, you can place papered granola back in its pan and run pan over hot burner until the heat reaches the granola-paper. Then try peeling the wax paper off again; it comes clean off very easily.

I’m 22 weeks pregnant and not gaining any weight. My doctor told me this morning that I need to start packing it on and suggested I try making granola bars. I found this recipe and made it with cranberries, walnuts, a few white chocolate chips and a small spoonful of coconut flakes
. OMG! I’m in heaven. I’ll probably eat them before they go bad, but was wondering if anyone knows how long these will keep and if I should refrigerate them?

Just tried this recipe yesterday and LOVED it! I think I’ll make a batch of these every week for my family to enjoy! So delish!!! I also mentioned that I made these on my blog and linked back to you. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! It’s just what we were looking for.

I did the math and it looks like the recipe TOTAL calories are 4200, fat 165 grams, fiber 50. So if you cut them in 12 pieces, it turns out they’re about 350 calories, 13 grams of fat, and 4 grams of fiber each. the nuts and seeds add a lot of fat (and obviously also the butter)

I didn’t have wheat germ so I put in 1/2 c of flax seeds. Also I used 2 tbsp peanut butter and 6 tbsp of brown sugar. Helped make it less sweet and more sticky. Used 1/2 c of cranberries and 1/2 c of raisins. Added 1 tsp of cinnamon to dry mixture after toasting.
Put it in the refrigerator to help harden.
Beware: EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE!!

SOOO excited I found this! I’ve been looking for a granola bar recipe. I, too, like them for a quick snack, but hate that they all have HFCS except Kashi, and again, LOVE the Kashi, but can’t afford them to buy a box of 5 every other day. 🙂 Thanks!

Tried these out as my first attempt at making granola bars… They were great! I used Agave nectar instead of honey and they glued together fine. I will likely use less vanilla next time, we’re just not vanilla fans. I am also thinking of trying them with dark chocolate and peppermint extract as the holidays get closer. Thanks so much for the recipe and the wonderful photos!

Just finished making this! Oh man! Simple is an understatement for one thing and the taste is incredible! I doubled the recipe(worked perfectly!) and used a half sheet pan–restaurant size. This is such a versatile recipe; so easy to change up to suit anyone’s favorite ingredient. Thanks so much for sharing!! Never eating another store bought granola bar EVER!

I made these with pumpkin seeds instead of peanuts since I have a nut-free workplace. They taste nice but I find them a bit sweet. I didn’t have a problem with it all sticking together; I had the issue of it being TOO sticky – I couldn’t get the waxed paper off without most of it sticking to the bars and then had to cut off a layer with a knife so that I wasn’t eating paper. Next time I’ll try to cut down on the honey or sugar, and I’m definitely going to grease the paper. But there will be a next time!

awesome recipe! i found it to be a little too sweet so i added more oats to the batch. Mine also did not stick. I’m guessing you need corn syrup or more sugar for it to stick, but then it would end up to be more sweet!!

These are great! This time I substituted peanut butter for half of the brown sugar. They were great, and I liked having less sugar in them. My family loves them! I use whatever nuts I have, and I crush them in a blender to make it quick and easy. Thanks for this amazing recipe! I am passing it on to friends.

I made these last night and added sliced almonds and ground flaxseed. They are WONDERFUL. I love them. It made quite a few too. I am going to regularly start making these. My husband loves them and he says they are filling too!

My husband and I tried your recipe tonight.I put in oats,sunflower seeds,pecans,ground flax seed,coconut, diced frozen blueberries and chocolate raisins.Instead of honey and brown sugar I used agave syrup.My husband can’t eat the sugar or honey.Along with the agave syrup I used butter vanilla and about 1/2 cup cocoa and salt.They are so good but I guess I didn’t have enough liquid they didn’t stay together. What can I do to get them to stick together?Thanks

I tried using 1 Cup of agave nectar instead of honey and sugar last night and mine too did not stick. After cutting them, I slightly separated them and baked them on baking paper for 10 minutes at 350F. They held together fine, were a bit less sticky and slightly crunchier.

I found this recipe a while back and have been making it non-stop ever since! My boyfriend is a med student and loves having these to snack on while studying or right after he works out or finishes a game of Ultimate Frisbee.

I like to improvise and add 1/4 cup of flax seeds, usually 1/2 cup more oats, and assorted amounts of whatever nuts I have on hand, although pumpkin seeds are my favorite. I’ve used walnuts, pecans, slivered almonds, coconut, and pistachios at one time or another. I usually add more fruit than necessary, and I love the combo of cranberries and apricots.

I’ve found that the wax paper doesn’t stick as badly if I let the butter/sugar/honey mix boil for a minute or two before taking it off the heat. I also discovered that if I set the mix in a baking sheet I can fit another just on top and weigh it down, plus it’s easy to measure uniform bars.

Soy is NOT the great ingredient they make it out to be.
Like fluoride, lol.
Do the research! It will mimic estrogen, but not give you the benefits of it! Think of a lock and key. Soy fits the lock but doesn’t open it. So when your body makes more estrogen or you take a bio-identical, it will not give you the benefits if you eat soy, as the soy estrogen is in the molecular ‘receptacle’ blocking the real estrogen!

Been using this recipe for over a year. I make it with varying ingredients. I used walnuts and Brazil nuts last recipe. I also cook the honey mixture for several minutes. This last batch had 6 ounces of raisens and 6 ounces of dried cranberries. The flax seed meal is also a favorite with my hunting buddies. They are great! Thank you for sharing this with everyone.

Tried this recipe last night…Just replaced the peanuts with walnuts…Otherwise,made it exactly like the recipe..turned out AWESOME..!Nice,chewy and so healthy..!This is my 1st attempt at granola bars and after going through zillion recipes decided to try this one..and this is the recipe i will use henceforth..!

I had gastric bypass a year ago and was looking for something I could make sugar-free…I used splenda blend brown sugar (less 1/3 of a cup) and sugarfree honey…wonderful granola bars…do you know the nutritional value for these?

I tried these and instead of peanuts I used almonds..and instead of sunflower seeds I used pistachios. Then for the dried fruit i used cherries and WOW are they amazing! Oh and I used a little less sugar and a little more honey instead with no salt. 🙂

I made this recipe with a mixture of crushed hazelnuts, peanuts and almonds for the nuts and raisins for the dried fruit. It's so yummy! The only problem I have is that it didn't set very well and it just crumbles away, though I think that may be down to when I converted the weights (I'm from the UK and don't use cups) I may've got some of it a little off. Next time I plan on upping the amounts for the glue so fingers crossed for then. Thanks for the tasty recipe though 😀

Aah!!! They're falling apart! I think I may have been too eager to eat them and not let them sit long enough… Anyway, these are delicious! I pretty much stuck to the recipe this time, adding just a tiny bit of unsweetened coconut to the granola base, but next time I plan to use half pumpkin seeds and half sunflower and do chopped brazil nuts instead of peanuts. Thanks for the recipe!

tried your recipe today- toasted oats and nuts add a lot of good flavor to the bars. will continue to work w new combos and reducing the sugar a little. liked the chewy texture. only negative is that i didn't buy enough ingred. to keep testing! thanks for sharing!

I used this recipe tonight with a few tweaks , I added 1/3 cup flax seed,less oil ,pecans and chocolate chips..It would have turned out amazing accept the cook time mentioned was too long or the tin foil fried it.. I had one burnt side! 20 minutes was too long or they would have been perfect. try 10-15 minutes depending on how hot your stove gets.

[…] Granola Bars July 25, 2010 by thecrunchysoup Granola bars are a main stay here . We (could) eat about a box or more a week. At about $3.00 for a box of Kashi granola bars it was time for an intervention. This equals approximately $12.00 a month or $144.00 a year just on granola bars! (yikes!!!) . As Guy exclaimed, “That is a car payment!!!”. So I decided it was time to take our addiction to granola bars into my own hands and learn how to make some comparable to the Kashi brand we love. I had some standards; no high fructose corn syrup, only whole grains, and organic if possible. (low-fat and sugar too!) I found a delicious, frugal and easy recipe I would love to share with all my “Crunchy Soup” friends. Here is a link to the recipe I used. It has a great tutorial step by step on how to make them. Link to Granola bar recipe from Joyful Abode […]

I added some cocoa powder and cinnamon to the saucepan with a pinch of cayenne, omitting peanuts and adding coconut to the toasting portion. The bars have a great spicy “mexican chocolate” flavor to them!

Awesome! Thank you so much for this recipe. I have been looking for a no flour, no bake, no eggs, and no peanut butter,etc granola bars. I found a diamond in a unhealthy mist of chemical high fatting, store bought some tasting like cardboard granola oatmeal bars and half-baked recipes. I used just1 cup honey roasted sunflower nuts, 1/2 cup of brown sugar,1/2 cup of honey bunches of oats with cinnamon bunches and 1/2 cup honey, 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and almond real extract, pinch of kosher salt(butter was already salted), plus the butter thats all I had on hand. And Guess what?,it was still tasty and wholesome! Much blessing to the creator of this recipe.

I made these yesterday and the recipe worked great! I have been trying to replace the boxed food that we buy with healthier homemade alternatives. I added some flax seed and used almonds and walnuts instead of peanuts. Thanks for the recipe!

Thanks so much for this delicious recipe! I've made it a handful of times over the last few months. Yum! I've switched it up a bit though. Instead of the honey and brown sugar, I used 1/2c 'natural' peanut butter (the kind with NO oil or sugar…just peanuts) and 1/2c brown rice syrup. It's a much more mild flavor, so for anyone wanting 'sweet', you probably won't like them, but I love them! Thanks!

I made these last year and my husband absolutely loved them (he is picky about granola bars). I'm so glad Google brought up this recipe right away when I went a-searching for this. These are so very good. Thank you!

I absolutely agree with you about store-bought granola bars- not healthy at all if you read the ingredients. I have made this recipe twice. I reduced the butter by half and only used 1/3 c brown sugar and upped the honey to 3/4 c. I also replaced the peanuts with pecans or almonds. I stacked some books on top of mine (after placing a towel between the wax paper and the books) while they were cooling and let them sit overnight and that worked much better than the first time. Thanks again!

I love to cook and eat delicious foods. I love your homemade granola bar recipe. I mixed it up with different kinds of dried fruit, and I used 1 tsp of vanilla & 1 tsp of almond extract. Yummy! This is a great recipe.Thanks for the easy recipe!http://www.ukcookeryforums.comCooking

Hi Joy,My hubby is diabetic and I just bought the ingredients to make your recipe.I bought flax seed.Would you please, email me and tell me how much I would need to add to the recipe?Please, note joys granola bars in the subject bar so I don't think it's junk and toss it.

I've decided to eat healthier and by my blood type, and as you say, most granola bars are just like candy. . .Which is what prompted me to read their ingredients, pick what I can eat and make my own. However, I needed a recipe. . .Thanks Sooo Much for the Recipe. I am sure these will be GREAT!!!

This looks great, and just in time to bolster my experiments!!! I agree with everything you said about the 'candy bar' character of most granola, and have been looking for a cheaper/healthier/customizable recipe. This could be the ticket! Thanks.

I have been making these for about 6 months now and our family absolutely loves them. Thank you so much for opening my eyes to making these at home! I haven't boughten granola bars since the first time I made these. I love to cut the brown sugar and butter in half, just don't cut any of the honey out or you don't have enough goo:)

Thanks for the wonderful recipe! My friend and I are planning on trying them out. We too move around quite often and are in the middle of going south! I'm in the process of trying to eat healthier and hope this will help! Thanks, Kelsie

I am making these as we speak – they are cooling on my coffee table (it's a big cooking day today and I'm running out of room in the kitchen!) I'm making these for my boyfriend as good bike ride snacks – once day he requested chocolate chip banana bars from the grocery store and they don't carry that combination in any bar, so I found your recipe and added chocolate chips and dried bananas. Hopefully they get the job done. I'm excited! Thanks!

Hi Andrea, I make my own granola all the time and never use butter. I use canola oil, flax oil, or coconut oil and they all work great. I also never use peanuts, but use a lot of flax seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and even walnuts because they are all great sources of omega-3.

I was about to go with Alton Brown's recipe, as I know and trust him, but yours was the same except you did not require baking time. I am glad I went with you! Yay for one less step! I had tried making the playground granola bars with my kids, but they had flour and eggs and ended up being gummy on the inside. Not what I think of when I hear “granola bar”. Yours are what I think of! I made these for soccer game snacks and they were a big hit. Everyone was asking for the recipe! Thanks for sharing!

I made these last night and they turned out great! I eat a Luna bar/Lara bar-type thing every weekday, but that gets expensive. I might try less honey next time (a little sweet for my tastes), but maybe a bit of peanut butter?

I have one daughter with a dairy allergy. What do you think subbing out Earth Balance (vegan buttery spread) for the butter and omitting the nuts would do to your recipe? I am anxious to try it out. Thoughts?

When I searched for homemade granola bar, your page came up at the first list so here I am! Your granola recipe looks interesting and I definitely want to try it out! I am quite new into this blogging world, so I might visit your blog more often to get more inspiration. btw congratulations on your pregnancy 🙂

Great recipe. I use Blue Agave syrup in place of the honey for a lower glycemic index, and reduce brown sugar. I altered recipe and came up with a coconut almond chocolate bar that everybody raves about. Thanks for the research on this wonderful granola bar. Jan

Great recipe. I use Blue Agave syrup in place of the honey for a lower glycemic index, and reduce brown sugar. I altered recipe and came up with a coconut almond chocolate bar that everybody raves about. Thanks for the research on this wonderful granola bar. Jan

i made these once before…maybe also borrowing from another recipe and they worked wonderfully the 1s time! this time i was low on honey and also substituted molasses….and as i mixed it i had a feeling it was not gooey enough or covering all the oats mixture (i also used more of everything almost doubling recipe), but after cooling in the wax paper baking dishes only a couple stayed together. the rest fell apart! now i don't know what to do…..do i need to wait till i get more honey and can i remix more of the wet mixture and cover the dry stuff and do over? or could maple syrup work? or should i just give up and turn it into granola, for cereal??

Thanks for the easy recipe! I used it as a guideline and made bars with what I had on hand: oats, flaxseed, wheat bran, almonds, poppyseeds, currants, craisins, and dark chocolate chips. The only unexpected thing was that my chocolate chips melted when I stirred everything together and now I have chocolate granola bars! I also used a cone of piloncillo instead of the brown sugar – don't think it would taste much different though.

This is a great recipe. The only process step that I found a better way of doing is the toasting part, if you mix the grains/nuts and then toast, you get an uneven distribution of toasty-ness. I am toasting the ingredients separately and then mixing them together. Yum 🙂

You know I wish someone would tell me how to make the Toffee Granola bars? Nationwide Candy stopped selling them and said they have been discontinued. Here is what they look like: http://nationwidecandy.com/candy/itemdesc.asp?i… They were great wish they were still making them.

I have used this recipe a few times and love it! I have tried a few different combos, and all have tasted great. I only had two issues- with the dried pineapple it was way too sweet, so maybe try to find something without a lot of sugar. I also added less brown sugar because the bars were too sweet for me in general. I only added about 1 T; the bars don't stick together quite as well, but they are still sweet and so tasty. Thanks for the great recipe and the great pictures!

Thanks for the great recipe. I've been bouncing around looking for the right one and yours here is so simple and delicious it's my favorite. I really like the pressed in almonds with dried and chopped tiny cranberries and pineapple. Yum!

Fabulous recipe! I substituted 1/4 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, & 1/4 cup steel cut oats for the 3/4 cup wheat germ. Also, I used dry roasted peanuts and found that roasting them in the oven with the oats made them too roasted and dried out. So next time I'll just put those when I put in the fruit.

I loved your recipe, I had to fight the kids off! I didn't add the nuts due to nut allergies. I also left out the raisins and instead added dried blueberries and dried cherries. The granola bars turned out great! Thanks, Robyn

The bars are cooling. The syrup is tasty. For several years, I have used the best ever granola recipe from my school friend (class of '56). No sugar, just a 1/3 c maple syrup, 1/4 c olive oil and 1 tsp. vanilla is mixed into all the grains, nuts and brans before baking and stirring. I have always wanted a recipe that I could use my own granola to make into bars, so am trying your method. I did some substitutions: Raw sugar instead of brown, and maple syrup instead of honey. The rest of the method is the same. I used craisins, and I know soon dried blueberries will go into another batch. All that is left is to slice and wrap. These will certainly a be a wonderful treat for 14 grandchildren and their parents, and is a terrific substitute for store bought that has been their habit. Thank you! I have waited a long time for a good recipe!

I love this recipe! I halved it as I'm just making them for myself and cut the brown sugar a bit more– down to 1/4 cup instead of 1/3 cup (for half a recipe). I also used veg oil instead of butter. I had toasted hazelnuts on hand and used chopped dried apricots for fruit– delicious. Next I'll try peanuts and raisins and substitute peanut butter for some of the oil. Thanks for the inspiration!

I made these today and they are so delicious! For the fruit, I used homedried apples & really ripe bananas, plus dried Craisins, mangos, & blueberries. I didn't have enough sunflower seeds so instead I used 1/4 C sunflower, 1/4 C flax, & 1/4 cup sesame seeds. I also didn't have enough for 1 C peanuts so- I used 1/2 C crushed peanuts & 1/2 C slivered almonds instead. I knew my dehydrated bananas were extra ripe/sweet so I only used 1 tsp of vanilla in the “glue”. The result?! AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for this recipe! My hubby & little boys thank you, too!!

I have been looking for an easy, yet tasty recipe for homemade granola type bars. My college daughter takes them for her snack when her classes don't allow time for lunch, and being laid off right now, I can't afford to purchase the Fiber One bars she likes so well. I came across this recipe this morning and made it right away….I also made a few changes because I didn't have the listed ingredients. In place of peanuts, I used walnuts, in place of honey I used peanut butter and added it with the butter and vanilla to make the gloo. I also didn't have waxed paper (supplies are VERY low…) so I placed a new garbage bag in the dish to line it. There was plenty of bag to fold over and press, and when I lifted, it looked like the waxed paper did in the directions. I have ann appointment and will be back in a couple hours to check on them. I am SO excited!!!!!

Haven't made these yet but I am excited to try them! I recently went on a low sodium diet and developed an allergy to soy (to add to my peanut allergy). Trying to find a granola bar in the store that fits all these categories has been a nightmare! By substituting almonds for the peanuts this will work perfectly.

these granola bars are the best!! so easy and soooo delish! i too altered the recipe, adding walnuts, a few chocolate chips, and pumpkin seeds, and a bag of mixed nuts instead of just peanuts. instead of using honey, i used raspberry syrup from Summerland, BC, Canada (http://www.summerlandsweets.com/). the outcome was so tasty and super healthy.

I LOVE this recipe!! It is so easy and the results are SO delicious. The bars came out perfect on my first try. What I like best is, as long as you get the dry/wet ratio correct, you can use any ingredients you like and change the recipe around based on your tastes/ cravings that day. I did not have peanuts so I used sliced almonds. Replaced 1/4 cup of wheat germ with flax seeds (will use more flax next time). Used only 2 T brown sugar ( don't really need brown sugar at all). Also used almond butter to replace all but 1 T of butter. These bars are delicious, healthy, yummy, economical, and so easy to make it's ridiculous. I love the fact that I can control exactly what goes into them. I got 16 bars out of this recipe, 1 1/2 by 4 inches, and I estimate my cost to be approx. 20 cents per bar….crazy!! You can kiss the high priced and poor quality “health” bars in the stores goodbye if you make this recipe.

This recipe was great. I used almond butter for the butter and threw some fruit preserves for the “glue.” This recipe doesn't need the brown sugar. I also used already toasted wheat germ instead of toasting it with everything else b/c wheat germ easily burns. Dried blueberries and cranberries are the way to go. Parchment paper worked the best and it doesn't need the non-sticking spray. That's why bakers use parchment paper. You can toast everything at 345 so the fat from the nuts doesn't turn into trans-fat. The best part of this recipe is that it can be manipulated so easily.

Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I've made it several times now, and it never gets old. My favorite variation so far is subbing out the peanuts with the South Beach Diet nut mix (almonds, macadamias, and cashews), and using dried cherries and cranberries. It's also good with a little unsweetened coconut.

i love your recipe! thank you so much for posting it. i tried the almond butter substitution for the butter and it worked very well. the only wheat germ i could find had cinnamon added to it which turned out delicious in these bars. i used 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup flax seed instead of the peanuts and used dried currants for my fruit. i did not add any brown sugar. i think they turned out really well and i look forward to using this basic recipe to make lots of variations in the future!

These granola bars are the best ever!!! I have tried a few different variations but so far the best is walnuts for the nuts and chopped up heathbar (instead of the dried cranberries). Not as healthy but very good! I was thinking I could probably leave out the sugar next time since they are very sweet but sooooooo good! Another fabulous addition is cinnamon chips! very good

I will try these but will use blue agave sweetener. It can be substituted for honey , has the lowest hypoglycemia index and is a bit less sweet with fewer calories than honey. I use Agave to sweeten most things You can even find it at Costco and most of it is organic, Jan

Do you know if these can be kept in the freezer? I'm thinking that if I made some on the weekend, then I would eat them during the week. However, I don't want to have to eat all of them everyday so that they don't go bad.

I LOVE this recipe. This is one of those situations in which the internet makes life SO easy, because I was able to find your blog and this recipe. It is amazing how we have been fooled into thinking that granola bars are good for us, when in fact, 90.0% of the products are loaded with corn syrup!

Thank you for posting this recipe! This no-bake recipe is a very easy and sooooo much healthier than commercially available bars and sooo much less expensive. After some experimentation, I omitted the brown sugar substituted 1/4 cup creamy style almond butter for the butter and used a full cup of sunflower seeds. I also omitted the wheat germ. I found that the 1/2 cup of honey made the bars plenty sweet! I also prefer keeping food raw as much as possible, so although I heated the “glue” mixture (almond butter, honey and vanilla) I didn't toast the nuts/seeds or grains. Even my friends thought they tasted great!

I regularly eat granola bars as a quick pick-me-up snack between meals. I don't like that every one you buy at the store has all that high fructose…high maltose…etc stuff in it–NOT GOOD! I came across this recipe, and it turned out great! I changed it up a bit, like most people on here. I cut down on the honey and brown sugar and added about 1/2 cup or so of peanut butter. I threw in some cashews as well, and added some cinnamon to the mix. Everything was great! For storage, I used our FoodSaver and sealed them in packs of two. We'll see how that goes. They are neat little packages though! Great recipe!

Love these bars! Mostly because my anti-breakfast 15 year old daughter loves them. She can grab a bar while leaving out the door, eat it on the way to school and one bar will last all morning between classes. Quite filling. This morning battle has been solved, at least for now!Great job – love the pics too!

Love this recipe! I added flax seed and used mixed nuts instead of peanuts. I actually got 20 bars out of it by cutting the bars to about the size of a traditional grocery-store bar. Even at that size, they are filling and very high-protein. They are a little sweet for me, though, so I think I might try adding a little peanut butter to the “glue” next time I make them. Great, high-protein snack!

I got excellent results with this recipe. I varied the nuts, using sliced almonds. Added some flax seed. I also used a little molasses and chunky peanut butter in the liquid. Sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top. Your photos are helpful. Their appeal made me dive into whipping up a batch! Thanks.

They are pretty tasty…haha. My husband has a huge sweet tooth and likes them a lot. I could only eat half a bar in one sitting because they were very sweet and also pretty filling. Some people have offered suggestions for making them less sweet in the comments.

But yeah, way better than corn syrup crud in the grocery stores, way cheaper, and way more customizable. 🙂 So I hope you find a version you enjoy and feel good about.

You are right I did come via google. The bars look really good and they would still be better than the crap they sell in the stores with the corn syrup. I get what you are saying. Thanks for the reply.

That's interesting… I know most people who find this recipe come to my site via google and aren't regular readers of my blog, but…Since June 2009 I've been eating grain-free and with very little to no sugar. About 70% of my calorie intake comes from fats, and I get around 60-80g of protein a day, and under 100g of carbs a day (mostly from veggies, a little fruit, some nuts, dairy).

So if I were to make “granola” bars again, they'd be ALL fruit and nuts, no wheat germ, no cereals or oats, as little honey and sugar as possible, etc… So feel free to try your own tweaks to this recipe all you want, but I will not be making a “healthier” (lower fat?) version any time soon.

This recipe sounds great…. BUT… I did a recipe analysis on it and each bar has over 12 grams of fat in it and that was based on 14 servings not 12 servings. I did analyze it with almonds instead of peanuts though. But still quite high in fat. I think leaving out the sunflower seeds and finding a healthier alternative to the butter …. like possibly applesauce or something would drastically reduce that number…. just thought you should know.

Hi from sunny South Africa! Thanks for a great recipe.I do in flight catering for several very large charter companies over here in Johannesburg, and have included your granola bars in the vip snack boxes. The feed back was astounding.I have read with great interest all the readers' comments, and have even used some of the their comments, to great success.

Thank you so much!! I have a lot of food allergies that don't allow me to buy store made granola bars and being a dancer its hard to find something nutritious to eat when I'm on the go. This recipe is awesome and gives a lot of space for improvisations. Thanks so much (:

Wow!~ I will never buy granola bars at the store again! Once my husband started eating them, he couldn't stop! I didn't take them off the wax paper soon enough, it was all I could do to peel it off (he tried to eat the paper, he liked them so much!)

Just finished making these for the tenth time. Started to use solid coconut oil instead of butter to make this healthier. Seems to add just enough oil that there is no sticking to the wax paper and the benefits of coconut oil are numerous.

This is a quick shout out from the island of Jamaica, West Indies. I made the granola bars and they were PERFECT!!! I now have my first homemade recipe from my children (in the near future!!!! ) Happy Holidays everyone from Hot Hot Jamaica….

I have a friend who made and sent me some of these delicious bars. I asked her for the recipe and she sent more bars with a list of the ingredients but no quantities and directions. However sweet to send the bars I wanted to be able to make these anytime because they are SO good! I was so fortunate to happen across your site and find the exact bars! The pictures are exactly what her bars look like! I can't wait to make them! Thank you very much!

I just finished making the bars – followed the recipe fairly closely – just no peanuts (not a fan) – and I used 9×13″ instead of the recommended 11×13″ (could not imagine having used an even bigger pan). The only problem I really had was the wax paper sticking – as mentioned by another reviewer – despite oiling it prior to use. Overall fairly easy to make – even w/ a 2-yr old “helping” and tasty. I may be interested in decreasing the sugar – they are sweet – and next time I may try adding almonds, ground flax seed, cinnamon… waiting to see my 2-yr old's reaction.

Great recipe! It was very simple and easy to do. Wow, really tasty too. The wax paper was a real problem for me though. I don't know what I did wrong, but it completely stuck to both sides, and I'm having to pick it all off. I did spray it with Pam, but perhaps not enough. Maybe I pressed it too hard, or left it on there too long. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for the healthy recipe. I just finished it and it looks just like your pictures only in your pictures I noticed raisins with the cranberries. Did not try them yet, though I had bits here and there throughout the whole process, They are all packaged and ready to go. I made these granola bars for my teacher and I have never made granola bars before. Can't wait to bite into a whole one, looks like I am stopping at the store tomorrow to grab more fruit and nuts. My teacher is going to South America this Thanksgiving break. In the spirit of her special vacation 😉 I ran into the idea of totally changing the peanuts and instead using macadamias and Brazil nuts for the occasion. The only thing I would like to note is to be careful with the grains and nuts in the oven because you can easily overtoast them.

Ok, so I just made the granola bars. I had no nuts, no fruit and used ready made granola with seeds in it already. So I added more granola instead of seeds, chocolate chips instead of fruit (but they were milk chocolate, not what I was hoping for grrr.) and added a few marshmallows for the bulk I feared I was missing with the nuts. Both the chocolate chips and marshmallows melted when I added the glue (which I cut the brown sugar down to 1/2cup due to the choc. and marshmallows). While they are still cooling. . . I have to say they are yummy. I hope to discover that they will be just as yummy when I have dried fruit and soy nuts to use instead of the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Though I'll probably give them a small drizzle of chocolate on top. . . . I do love my chocolate!

This looks like a fabulous recipe. I've been searching for recipes for on the go that I can give my kids with out feeling bad. My son is allergic to peanuts, so I plan to skip that part this time, but maybe add soy nuts or another nut that he can eat. Like a few others I also plan to add chocolate chips (they are dark chocolate after all) in place of the dried fruit, but only because I don't have any at this time. I can't wait to try this out.

Since I first posted about a month agao I have made this recipe at least once a week. I have used many different combinations of nuts and fruits but have kept the basic “glue” as is with the exception of using different types of honey. They are so delish I could and have eaten them for breakfast and lunch without growing tired of them. I was just wondering if anyone out there would have anyway of calculating the amount of calories in these bars. I use a 9X13 pan and cut them down the middle just as in the picture. I have been trying to gain a little weight and was just wondering. I don't think I could give up these bars for anything, they are so good and really addictive. Thank you aain.

I was worried that the bars would fall apart on me so I took a spare piece of 1×6 board and pressed the mixture down with that. Obviously any large flat thing will work, just work your way around the whole pan and put as much weight on in as your counter will allow. 🙂

Thanks for this wonderful recipe. I've made these bars a few times now and anyone who snatches one before my husband eats them all up sighs with delight. I've recently posted the version I made on my blog (http://westernshorebirds.blogspot.com), in which I cheated and used a prepared granola (it was what I had in the kitchen at the time). Thanks again for all your great recipes!

These are fabulous – better than any commercial brand I've ever eaten and so easy to make. They will become habit-forming. I used hazelnuts and highly recommend them. To cut back on the sugar content, I'll try Colleen's variation without the brown sugar and with the extra vanilla. Thanks!

These bars are sooo amazing!! i love them and you can pretty much put whatever you have available into them. I've made so many different kinds. What I don't do however, is put in the brown sugar, they are plenty sweet without the sugar. Instead, I add one more tsp of vanilla. They are great!! Thank you finally for a recipe without the crap!

I just tried this recipe last night and I am impressed…thank you!So to my fellow peanut butter lovers… This may not have been the most nutritional choice but I added about 1 1/2 (total) cups of baking chocolate chips mixed with baking reese's peanut butter morsels that I found in the super market instead of fruits. The bars came out looking a lot different that the photos above and tasting a little bit more like a candy bar (but still good!). They were a little more gooey than nutty, but when cut open you can see all the nutty goodness inside them. They were very delicious! My next ones will be chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Should be just as interesting! Anyhow just though I would share with everyone who was wondering about the PB! (It's worth a try!)

As I am oat/wheat intolerant I made these bars today using 1 c of spelt flakes & 1 c of Kamut flakes replacing the oats and instead of wheat germ used ground flax seed. I also added pumpkin seeds & coconut & sliced crushed almonds instead of peanuts (which I also cannot eat)adjusting the quantities to meet the original recipe. They turned out super delicious. Thank you for the basics.

I followed this recipe pretty closely, and it was far too sweet. Also, the baking dish I used made the bars far too thin.

For my second attempt, I followed Wendy's revisions to a degree. I don't remember exactly what I did, but they turned out much less sweet. They didn't fall apart. Also, I used a smaller square baking dish and they turned out quite thick, which probably contributed to their stability.

Like everyone, I used what I had around. I used walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and dried apple. I didn't like the gummy texture of the apple in this, so I left it out of the second one.

Now I did some shopping and I have peanuts, cashews, and dried mango.

My mom said that the second ones were the best granola bars she ever had! (Maybe she was just really hungry).

I lost my job this year and have struggled with good healthy treats for my family, but with all these ideas and recipes it has brought smiles in my house once again. Thanks so much. I also get more time with my kids they love to help and take pride into making them for others as well…

I forgot to write in my comment earlier – I'm going to make several different flavors, wrap the bars in colorful plastic wrap and add them to gift baskets to give to family members for Christmas. I'm going to add a few other homemade goodies as well. Money is tight this year as I lost my job, so these will make healthy gifts from the heart (and inexpensive!). Thanks again for the recipe!

mmmm…I LOVE your recipe. I've tried others and they just fell apart, but these actually stay in bar form. I made mine with sliced almonds, shredded coconut, dried cranberries, and dried apricots. They were great!

Next flavor I want to make is with crushed peanuts, peanut butter, and a few chocolate chips, maybe some raisins or apricots to squeeze some fruit in there. Have you used peanut butter before? I'm guessing I could replace the butter with natural peanut butter, but I'm not sure if that's enough peanut butter flavor. Hmmm…

I was reading your blog and I had the same problem…i wanted a granola bar one which was not too sweet and healthy….thanks a lot for the recipe…sounds pretty easy and I am not to fond of peanuts so will try walnuts and almonds instead.will let u know how that turns out.Thanks again.

I can't eat wheat germ so I omitted it added extra oats in its place used almonds raisins and dried blue berries and a little extra vanilla. Boy did I ever get raves for the bars…thanks for the recipie.

These are very easy and so tasty. I used some ground flax seed, puffed wheat, cranberries, raisins, toffee coated peanuts. Options are endless. I wrap individually and store in the freezer. I like them frozen but my hubby takes them for lunch everyday and they hold together great.Thanks for the recipe ,tips and photos.

If yours weren't chewy you may have let the sugar mixture cook too long… try it for a shorter amount of time next time, maybe?They are very sweet, you're right… I've been trying to make a less sweet version but they don't tend to stick together very well.

My daughter (6) and I made these and the whole family loves them! I used chopped dried apricots. Happy to have found such a great recipe! We omit the nuts for my son and will try different dried fruit next time for variety.Ginger/Washington DC

Love them! I made a double batch (in a half-sheet pan) for my son's class. They're taking their PSAT's tomorrow, so we're providing breakfast/snacks. Didn't have enough wheat germ on hand, so I used some 8-grain cereal (fine ground) to supplement. Used whatever fruit and nuts I had a surplus of, and coconut in place of sunflower seeds. Also had about a cup of mini-chocolate chips hanging around, so I sprinkled them on top after I pressed the mix into the pan, and quickly patted them in before they melted too much.

Just made granola bars for the third time (improvised off of your recipe) I used flax meal instead of wheat germ, used cranberries and dark chocolate chips, and for nuts used sunflower seeds, sliced almonds (they are great for holding things together for chewy bars), crushed peanuts, pecans, and cashews. For the “glue” I used honey, freshly ground peanut butter (no sugar added) and reduced the amount of sugar. I used a tablespoon of mild olive oil and reduced the butter to less than half. They're great, I find that putting really hard pressure when pressing down and putting slided almonds and chocolate chips that end up melting into the whole thing really increase the chewiness and sticking together! Thanks!

They sounded really good, but I couldn't get the ingredients to stick together. I even tried to put them in the frig, then frezzer… to no avail…so I put everything into another recipe that had flour and baking soda. They came out ok sorta of like a oatmeal soft cookie bars. Maybe I'll try them again….

I use 2 TB blackstrap molasses (strong, but the only sweetener w/ any kind of nutritive value)and instead of honey I use natural maple syrup. I reconstitute TVP w/ water and blackstrap (1 TB) and add that too. I put flax seeds in as well and used your idea of roasting the oats, seeds, and nuts in the oven. Yummy, it makes a fuller flavor. Okay, if I'm being honest, I toss in mini choc chips too. I agree, the dates are good!

My Sweet niece Kathleen in Seattle hooked me up with your recipe on Facebook.. I made a double batch in 2 different pans and it was easy.. My facebook friends are impressed so I will pose your site on there.. We love Kashi and these will be great.. Loved the pics also.. I put dates in mine

I made these with pre-made almond/raisin Quaker oats natural granola and added some dried cinnamon apples & cranberries and a can of pureed pumpkin (I heated the pumpkin with the sugar mixture). I also sprinkled a cinnamon/brown sugar mixture on top and used agave nectar instead of honey.

My ingredients were based on what I had on hand and needed to use up. I was going to grind up some flax seeds (whole flax seeds just pass right through you because they are too small, you have to grind them to get the nutritional benefits) but I didn't, maybe next time.

These look and smell wonderful, but I have yet to taste them as they are cooling right now.

Great recipe, but I have made changes. I double the recipe, add cup of each chopped almonds,pecans, craisens, and scoup of peanut butter. And flax seed. When its all ready I use a cake sheet with spray oil. Flatten and spread with mixing spoon, cover with waxed paper and use a rolling pin to flattten and even out the mixture. Love them!!! Tougher to mix with a double recipe though.

I found this recipe a couple weeks ago and have been dying to try it out. Because I have a inclination to start changing recipes before I've tried them, I only make half batches. Good thing too, because my first attempt was aweful!!! haha. I think I pinpointed the problems though. First, I used blueberry ground flax (smells bad, and doesn't taste good either!), and second, I tried to use a little syrup instead of all the brown sugar. I'm not a huge syrup person, so I'm not sure why I thought I would like it better in the bars.

So, next time I am just going to use whole flax seeds since I like them so much. And instead of using syrup I am just going to stick with the brown sugar and then rework it from there if I don't like the out come. Wish me luck!(Oh, so after I tried them, wanting to salvage something, I picked out the whole Almonds to use the next time : ) )

Hi,I have tried gronola bars with some dry fruits & oats with the same measurement. it was crumbly. taste was great. we finished all but we had to eat with a cereal. can you pl. give me a suggestion or where did i go wrong? why it was crumbly.thankssd

I just love this site and want to say thank you so much for all of the recipes and the pictures are delightful. I am a 65 year old, grandma and still working full time nurse. I love to cook and just have to give this recipe a try since I have not done granola bars before. Thank you again.

Thanks for this recipe as I no longer eat sugar (if I can avoid it) and using honey is a great alternative here.Thanks for your trial and error, I'm going to try to make these and see how they turn out.Sounds yummy!

Thanks for such a brilliant recipe!! I've just made my second batch, with 1 tsp of butter and 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup honey (trying to cut back!) I'm delighted to finally have a quick and delicious recipe!! only problem is ……….they taste too good!!

These were chewy and delicious! I substituted about 2 T of the honey for molasses, and it was awesome. I didn't even use any of the seeds or nuts and these were still fabulous. Great dipped in peanut butter too.

I have been making granola bars according to your recipe for couple of months while living in New York. In the meantime I have moved to Serbia and today I organised shopping trip just to buy all necessary ingredients and make your delicious granola bars again, enjoy them and bring back memories from eating them in New York. I believe flavors and little rituals bring back memories and this one is certainly a pleasant one 🙂Thank you!

Just want to say these are awesome!! My sister-law made these for a snack and they were so good!!! I do daycare and these are a perfect after school snacks for the older kids Thanks for having your website

Tried your recipe – hallelujah! After several other recipes and failures, I tried your recipe and my wife and I love these bars. Easy to make and delicious – and the bars stay together. A nice switch. Thanks!

Mmmmm. These are great. My 7-year-old daughter, upon tasting one, said, “Homemade everything is better!” She is taking them to school on her snack day. At a friend's suggestion, I used some agave syrup in place of half of the honey. I used tupelo honey, speaking of using different honeys. This is only my first batch, so I don't know if it makes it taste different.

Here's what I've done to make these granola bars a little less sweet (and maybe healthier!). to fill a 9×13 pan, I use 3 1/2 cups of oats, 2 cups of nuts, and varying amounts of raisins. I omit the sunflower seeds and wheat germ. For the glue, I use 3 Tbsp butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup honey. I'm going to try substituting maple syrup for the honey. This ratio of oats to glue makes the bars still tasty, but not so caramel-y.

I will try these out as soon as I can. About the sugar content We only put it in 2x's as to where the manufacturer's put in sugar 3-6 times depending on its name.. so right there we already made it better for ourselves and our children and we do not use things that we cannot pronounce like glutonate etc. etc. Just be happy with the fact that you took a healthy step too feed your selves and your children. And did not buy into the advertising. Kudos for that most definitely.. Sincerely concerned praent with 2 special needs kids .. Lara

Seriously yummy granola bars! I used the Splenda brown sugar mix and cut it in half and I also cut the dried fruit in half to reduce some calories. There is still plenty of fruit though – way more than you'd get in a store bought brand of granola bars. I used used 3/4 cup almonds in place of the cup of peanuts too and that was still plenty. I will be making these again…. and again…. and again….. Thank you for the awesome recipe and those gorgeous pics!

Must say they are delicious. I did add a few things andI cut down on the Br sugar and added a heaping TBsp of molasses instead. Along with the wheat germ and ground flax (short 1/4 C each) I added Bob's 10 grain hot ceral…(toasted it with the oats and nuts). I added Craisins and raisins. Tried them on my daughter and grandson…they loved them. Thank you so very much. Great recipe!

I made the bars and they are even better than the recipe looks! They are perfect!!! The recipe is easy to follow and right on. The photos helped. The pan is cooling now and it has been 2 hours. I have already tasted it about 5 times and they are delish!!!!!!

i like the idea of toasting the seeds and grains and then justpressing them down. my recipe calls for baking the bars &it is tricky to cut them without crumbling the bars all up so i amgoing to try your version tonight. i wanted to mention i always putflax seeds in my recipe but i grind them in a coffee grinder first thenadd to the concoction. this way you get all the nutritional benefit fromthe seeds and no one knows you added them. apparently the whole flax seeds do nothing for you if they are not broken up first. health food storessell flax crushed but it is expensive and so easy to do yourself.

I hear your complaint about granola bars that should be haled as candy. How do you not count all the sugar you put in? 1/2 C of honey plus 2/3 C br. sugar……that's a lot of sugar too. I am going to try the recipe and limit the sugar more…maybe take out the br. sugar all together. I know you need sticky to hold them together. We'll see what happens.

Hi! These bars were awesome! Tried it last night, used some ingredients that are abundant here in our country, the Philippines, and gave sample treats to my office mates today! I got praises from it, but i thought you deserved all of them. I’m so glad i stumbled into your food blog! This is so easy to prepare, so healthy (i put more honey than brown sugar), and so delicious! Thanks for sharing!

I’d made baked granola bars before, but like someone else said, they never seem to cook quite evenly enough. I made these as written, except for adding a handful of chocolate chips to substitute for a little shortfall in my peanut and my sunflower seed supply.

I think compressing them adequately is probably key – I actually got a chopping board, laid it on top and stood on it (hey, there was a chopping board *and* saran wrap between me and the bars…). To help the bars cool down more quickly, I laid a freezer block on top of them. If I’d thought of it, I’d have put the freezer block in some water in a metal cookie sheet and laid on top of the bars. That would have really sped things up.

As they stand, they held together like store-bought bars and taste pretty excellent. Perfect pre-run carbs!

Hey 🙂
I stumbled upon this recipe ’cause I wanted to make some granola bars for a friend who was really craving them. These are so tasty!! I’m about to make another batch for my mum who absolutely loved them.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!

My son cannot tolerate wheat or honey or molasses used to make brown sugar. I was wondering if anyone out there knows whether or not I can substitute ground flax seed for the wheat germ, and maple syrup for the honey. I can make my own brown sugar with regular sugar and maple syrup. This recipe looks wonderful, and I would LOVE to be able to make something like this for him.

Love the looks of this recipe. Found it when I was looking for Granola bars with no HFCS. My problem, is the reason I love Fiber One Bars is the 9g of fiber that keep me filled up. Any way to add more fiber to this?
Also, the fat and calorie count is high… will try the jaggery and maple syrup, but wonder if anyone has a recipe for a low fat, low calorie, high fiber bar. Basically, Fiber One without the HFCS!

I tried this recipe out, wanting a healthy granola recipe…found it wayyyyy too sweet! Sorry to say that 🙁 and no, i didn’t measure wrong. I just want a decent ‘bonding agent’ or ‘glue’ for homemade granola bars that is healthy and not too sweet!

Made these tonight for my kids lunches and they are great. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have a family of 7 and 1 on the way soon and this is a great healthy snack that is well worth the time spent and money saved. Thanx again and keep adding.

Thank you for this recipe. My son has a lot of food allergies and this looks like a great snack for him. I appreciate the oat discussion, as that is one of the allergies we are contending with. I have tried a few recipe and have been very disappointed. I just made some with dates and almonds. If look and smell is any indication of taste, we are in for a treat!
Thanks for the great pictures too!

I tried this recipe a few months ago and am about to make another batch tonight! They came out great! I just went ahead and greased my pan rather than using the waxed paper. I used almonds, cashews, dried figs, pumpkin and flax seeds, and almond extract instead of the vanilla. Absolutely wonderful and the greatest quick breakfast on the walk to school. Thank you so much!

So, I made my first batch … YUM. They will be perfect for the long (14 hr) car ride I have coming up on Thursday. I wrapped them individually, and put them in the fridge, wasn’t sure I could leave them out until Thursday.

Of course, I had to save one to have with my tea tonight.

Quick question though – I followed your recipe exactly (well, with the exception of almonds vs peanuts) and my bars are sticky – are they supposed to be.

Thank you for this amazing recipe. I’ve made it 3 times now! We love them. I discovered on my second batch that it’s important not to cook the candy mixture very long, otherwise your granola bars are more like rocks. Stopping at a simmer completely solved the problem.
Cheers and good on ya’ for creating such a great dish to share with all of us!

Hi. I just found your page by doing a google search for how to make granola bars.
I’ve had this bookmarked for some time, and finally had time this weekend to make them. It was superbly easy to do; the hardest part was being patient enough to wait for them to cool! I think they are much too sweet for my taste, though, so in the future I plan on trying to reduce the sugar and maybe incorporate some molasses – in my granola, I use only maple syrup and molasses. I also think I’d like them better with ground flax meal instead of wheat germ. And, in the future, will probably not toast the flax meal / wheat germ as it gets browned so much quicker than the oats and nuts.
I’m really looking forward to making more of these and trying out different fruit and nut combinations!

These are delicious! Anyone know how long they last without any refrigeration? I wrapped them individually, and I plan on sending them to my kid in college. These will probably be stored in a cupboard or drawer…

These turned out great! They held together really well. I didnt have wheatgerm so I used 2 Wheatabix and some grapenut cereal. I added cinnamon too, and switched up some of the honey for molasses. For a 2nd batch I tried to make it even healthier by using olive oil, but they didnt hold up as well. Need the solid fat of margarine I guess. I love them and so do the kids!

this looks good! I’ve tried several recipes in order to make a granola bar that is not too sweet or expensive, and they were all terribly crumbly. I’m anxious to try these – thanks so much for posting this recipe.

I made these last night and they turned out great! I lowered the brown sugar to a 1/3 cup, and used Blue Agave nectar instead of honey. Should have used less Agave because the stuff is sweeter. This recipe seems high in calories because of the nut content, so I will have to try making lower fat somehow. Perhaps cut the brown sugar out entirely.

I made these tonight and they are absolutely delicious! I love to bake and I’m always interested in how to recreate some of my favorite packaged snacks. This recipe is a keeper and I’ll be making these for a long time. Can’t wait to try different options, such as chocolate chips and different kinds of fruit. Thanks so much for sharing this.

Thanks for the great recipe idea. I’ve been making a lot of my own snacks and foods at home because I’m interested in eating healthier and consuming less preservatives and other chemicals. But one thing I would like to ask is that we stop beating up on high fructose corn syrup. Scientific examination of HFCS finds that it is not detrimental to our health, generally speaking. Blame manufacturers, and the human population in general, for giving this stuff a bad name, and over-using/consuming it. In most cases humans make themselves unhealthy and unhappy through their own dietary habits.

Hello! I haven’t tried your recipe yet, but they look delicious. One thing I have done in the past to cut down a bit on sugar while not giving up taste. is when you’re simmering the ‘syrup’ mixture, reduce the honey/sugar and add peanut butter. I usually don’t add peanuts to the bars, but add other nuts and fruits so it’s not too ‘peanutty’ (is that a word?? :). I too add wheat germ and flax seed and have also used whole grain cereal mixes. I have actually used a 9-grain cereal mix and it was still delicious! The peanut butter (while I know some people couldn’t have that…) adds delicious flavor and bonding power while cutting down on sugar. 🙂 Sometimes I add cinnamon in the syrup mixture too.
Anyway! Thanks for the blog and the great recipes and tutorials! I love reading about other people’s experiences.

This recipe was excellent. Very easy and everyone loved it. I made both chocolate chip and raisin granola bars and actually preferred the raisin ones. They were a very filling snack which was also good. Thanks for sharing. And your pictures are beautiful. Not sure mine looked that good in process…

I’m so excited to try these! I’ve been starting to get “processed food” conscious… especially since my little toddler seems to LOVE it… so I’ve been looking for a more healthy option for a granola bar. Seems like this will do the trick! Can’t wait to give them a whirl. Thanks for sharing!

I finally got around to making these and they are delicious. I’m so happy with the way they turned out. I used flax seed instead of wheat germ and used tart cherries and dried mango. I can’t wait to play around with it even more.

This is my second comment on this post, but I wanted to tell you that this recipe has become a staple at our house. I can’t get away with a single batch any more, since I share these granola bars with two other families; parents and toddlers alike love them. When my officemate was pregnant, she snacked on these throughout the work day. I had a lot of trouble getting the waxed paper off cleanly, and I now make granola bar bites instead by pressing the mixture into greased mini-muffin cups with a pestle, then twisting them out of the cups while still warm. No one can ever stop at just one!

My family loves these granola bars. However my 10 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Insulin dependant diabetes and I now have to count her carbs. I wanted to post my results for others out there who may be diabetic or just trying to lose weight. Here are the total carb counts on all the ingredients.

For the original recipe minus the dried fruit the total number of carbs is 516 carbs. The 2 different batches I made in one I added 2/3 cup craisins and 1/2 cup raisins which is 2 servings of each and the carb count on that is 148g of carbs and in the other I added 3/4 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup semi sweet baking chips and the carb count on that was 120g of carbs.

Now depending on how many bars you cut is obviously going to determine the carb count in each bar. The batch I made with the fruit if I cut them into 20 bars it would be 33g of carbs per bar and cut into 18 would be 36g of carbs per bar. The peanut butter chocolate chip one is cut into 20 bars is 32g of carbs and cut into 18 bars is 35g of carbs so really not much of a difference.

I did check and there is no carb saving by using Splenda brown sugar over regular because they are both 4g of carbs per serving.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of “glue” that would work besides honey and brown sugar that would be a little more carb friendly but still hold tight and taste good?

Overall this is a great recipe and my family loves it. I feel better knowing that they are getting a filling and healthier snack than the store bought granola bars. Thanks for a delicious recipe.

This is the second time I’ve made these wonderful granola bars. Naturally I had to use my own variations here and there. I used pecans instead of peanuts and two different types of honey. I found that all the sweet ingredients made the bars just a little too rich for my taste so this time I omitted the brown sugar. I used agave syrup instead.

In general I just love this recipe. The photos are terrific and of great help. Kudos for coming up with this fantastic way of making a delicious granola bar.

By the way, I made up a batch for my trip to the West Coast so that I would have something quick and nutritious on the plane or on the road. Easy, breezy and yummy!

This is basically Alton Brown’s recipe with variations. I like your omission of his baking step… makes it so much easier. I made variations of my own, and this recipe just works really well that way. Try Craisins as the fruit… yummy!

I have been making this recipe for my cafeteria at our university, they love it so much the posted in their newspaper. I triple the recipe and put into a cookie sheet, and it flies off the shelf. Great recipe.

In response to Post #77, the calories for a cup of peanuts is incorrect. One cup of peanuts = 854 calories. I am very conscious about the calories, too, so I thought everyone should know. I am not sure where the poster go 166 calories from. Perhaps that is for peanuts in their shells. The poster also multiplied the dry fruit by 5 ounces instead of 8 ounces. I get that the total calorie count per batch is 4846.

Beyond that, I have to say that they are fantastic bars, too! thanks for the recipe :>)

Great recipe! I made two batches. Batch 1 I forgot to heat the ‘glue’ and therefore mixed the ‘glue’ ingredients cold and then added the toasted oats, peanuts and sunflower seeds (I didn’t have wheat germ so I added additional oats). I also used a fat free butter substitute. They were still amazing! On batch two I heated the ‘glue’ and added some cinnamon and these bars are incredible. I trout fish in the mountains and need a lunch-type pick-me-up with my banana and these work! Thank you.

Just made these and they are SO yummy!! I omitted the nuts, because we have a nut allergy in the house, but they are delish! Thanks. Oh, and I did add a handful of chocolate chips, but they melted. Maybe would omit them next time….
Thanks again,
Gabi

Wheat germ has a lot of protein, iron, potassium, vitamin E and other good stuff… if you want to leave it out the bars will taste fine. They just add a bit of “yay!” to the healthiness of the bars. (maybe to make up for all the sugar and butter? haha)

Thanks for this recipe! They look awesome, and with summer coming a snack to throw in the diaper bag and go is SO important. Granola bars are not only disguised candy but they’re EXPENSIVE! These are great…I’m going to try your coconut and dried pineapple suggestion, but with almonds still instead of macadamia.

Tried this recipe, used chopped dates and currents as my fruit. SO SO good and extremely easy and a very short process. Just take a minute to have all ducks in a row before starting. Much better than store bought and a better deal as well.

My son made these for a class project. We modified the recipe a little because he was only allowed to have a certain amount of sugar. We decreased the honey and brown sugar and used fat free peanut butter. It worked like a charm! His was voted the best in the class. We will definitely be making them for our own consumption.

I will be trying this recipe on Friday! We are having a food fair at my church I am volunteered to bring a healthy kids dish. This is perfect! I will let you know how they like it. Thanks for posting this.

Thanks for this great spring board recipe! I too cleaned out the kitchen cupboard and had to make substitutions and the recipe still worked. One suggestion I have is to add warming spices to the ‘glue’ after you take it off the heat (should add the vanilla at that stage as well). I used Garam Masala blend with a little extra cinnamon, you could also use pumpkin or apple pie spice blends or make your own using cinnamon, nutmeg, alspice, and cloves.
It does not take much spice blend to give these granola bars a nice flavor – 1 tsp or less – so give it a try!

In response to Evan’s concerns that heating polyunsaturated fats turns them into trans-saturated fats. This isn’t accurate. Heating polyunsaturated fats adds a molecule of oxygen, not a molecule of hydrogen, so although the fats end up slightly more saturated, you don’t have trans fats. In fact, heating these oils to 350 will only cause a very small change. In order to cause major changes, you’d need to boil the oil for long periods, or under pressure.

Made these for my allergic-to-everything husband for a road trip, and now he’s addicted. I used pumpkin seeds and crunched-up shredded wheat biscuits instead of nuts, flax meal instead of wheat germ (non-fishy omega-3’s!), canola oil instead of butter, a mix of sweet and tart dried cherries, and a heaping half-cup of mini chocolate chips. I tried waiting a while before adding the chips, as suggested by folks above, but apparently I didn’t wait long enough as the bars came out a little muddy and chocolate-coated. He doesn’t care. 🙂

Over the course of the trip, I noticed that the flavors in the bars seemed to mellow and blend, so that they got better over time. At the outset, the vanilla flavor was very strong; by the sixth day, it had equalized with the rest of the ingredients. I don’t know if this is a result of using fancy vanilla or if it’s something experienced by anyone who doesn’t eat the whole batch in a sitting. Either way, yum!

Hi,
I found this when I googled granola bars. I think you and I were like-minded because I agree with everything you typed before the recipe! I’ve been saying it for years processed foods are discusting!
Anyways I tried the recipe for my sister’s cross country team and altered a few things, instead of peanuts and sunflower seeds I used a nice mix of walnuts and pecans. For fruit I did half/half of Cranraisins and raisins.
I think you can taste too much of the honey so next time I’m going to either up the oats, decrease the honey, or decrease the sugar. Otherwise they turned out great! Thanks for making the recipe avaible. Nice photos by the way

Just made these. Had to alter a few things since I don’t like honey. I used Maple syrup and apricot jam, a mixture of yellow raisins, currants, chopped dried apricots and cranberries for the fruit. Also- foolishly added choc bits- they melted and so everything is chocolaty. Would add that later as a topping. Really appreciate the step by step process- it was very helpful. They taste TERRIFIC, but I still would not include the choc bits next time. Thanks!!!

I am def. going to try these but I am on a restricted diet that won’t allow me any refined sugars…so I am going to substitute the brown sugar for maple syrup..or maybe more honey. They look really really delicious though.

Thanks for this wonderful recipe! Here are a few ‘tweaks’ that worked for me:

For my first batch, I mistakenly boiled the syrup for longer than the recipe states, but it actually worked out fine and made the bars crispy-crunchy instead of soft-chewy. Delicious both ways.

Use parchment paper to line the pan and to press down the mixture. NOTHING sticks to parchment! My waxed paper stuck and I was forever picking out little pieces from both top and bottom, and I probably ate just as much.

I made a batch to send to my deployed husband – he and his men will love these! To ensure they made it to Iraq in good shape, I wrapped each bar in plastic and then FoodSaver-ed them, and included a ziploc bag for leftovers.

These are so good that you want to eat more than a few each time, but the butter in them requires some restraint on my part. I need to find a recipe that uses heart-healthy oil for my vegan son and for myself.

These were fabulous! I came across this recipe while trying to find granola bar recipes for the same reasons you mentioned – boughten ones were just disguised candy bars!! I made the first batch directly from your recipe, then started playing. Almonds are a very nice addition, but our favorites have to be dried cranberries and a handful of dark chocolate. Thanks for posting this!

Just wanted to say your recipe is awesome! I first found it about two months ago and have about 4 batches. I’m about to make a new batch for myself and a batch using millet instead of nuts as my picky-eater-vegetarian son won’t eat nuts. Thanx for an awesome and flexible recipe!

Hey, i had to try this recipe the minute i saw it… but i didn’t have
wheat germ, so i added millet and just mixed it in with the oats etc.
and i didn’t put any salt in them. And the results were amazing, everyone loved them and my daughter took the last 4 home with her. I was so surprised!! She is a picky eater too.

I made these last night and they are absolutely delicious! I used soft dark brown sugar so there’s a hint of treacle about them. Definitely going to experiment with the ingredients a bit – it’s such a flexible recipe. Yo good lookin’ out, bars be dope!

Just tried this recipe last night and THEY ARE SOOOO YUMMY!!! I used almonds instead of peanuts and used 1 cup of dried cranberries. Much better than any granola bar available at the grocery store! Thank you so much for this recipe!

Awesome recipe – can’t wait to try it out – I thought of adding flax seed to it as well – you can have a little fun mixing and matching healthy ingredients too. I’m with you – the good granola bars are too expensive. Nice website too!!! Paulette – Ottawa,Canada

Hey there-
I try to stick to healthier eating habits because I get “sick” just thinking about how much junk people eat now-a-days, and I want a healthier body! I was thrilled to find this recipe b/c I love granola bars! Thanx!

As far as I have read, whole flax seeds benefit from grinding in terms of unlocking their nutrients. They have a hull that makes them mostly indigestible if left whole and raw – although some people do still eat them that way.

For toasting, I think it can unlock some nutrients if baked lightly in the oven (as this recipe calls for) but over the stove may be too hot. Also, one website post that I read online (can’t find it at the moment) recommends toasting flax to kill a certain compound in them that – in high doses – may supress thyroid function after awhile. I am no scientist, so I’m not sure about that, but it is something to consider…

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. (I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it looks so pretty!)

By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.

Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Then, open the waxed paper …

And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).

Enjoy!

Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they’re what we had, but next time I’m going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars.

Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.

Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too. Mmm…

So many options! Good thing we have time! Be sure to write down all of your delicious variations on adorable recipe cards so you won’t forget them! I’ve got several designs in the shop, so check them out!

Well, I just happened upon your site looking for granola bars. They look DEEEELISH! I just made them (awaiting the cooling time to try them out!) I love fresh, homemade goods (bun dough is just about ready for me on the counter for fresh buns! YUM) I did change the peanuts out for almonds so the kids could take them to their “peanut-free” school. Also added in pumpkin seeds as they add great protein!! Thank you so much, I will be linking this recipe on my blog! I plan to look through yours…
thanks again,
Jennifer

Thank you so very much for the recipe and taken the pics they help bunches. We have tried several recipes and this is by far the best recipe we have found. Some alters that we do is use mixed nuts instead of the peanuts and also we have left them whole. Another thing is use splenda brown sugar instead of regular brown sugar as my husband can’t have the sugar content. Also we have put more nuts and left out the fruit for a more nutty version. Enjoying granola bars in Cold Michigan!!!

THANK YOU FOR THIS. I had made granola bars but baked them in the oven after mixing the raw ingredients together. Those were overdone at the edges of my glass 9×13″ pan and a little underdone in the middle. I noticed one thing: While toasting the grains in the oven the wheat germ toasted more quickly than the larger grains and nearly burned. Next time I will give the grain mixture a pulse or two in the Cuisinart to make it a little finer/more uniform, or add the wheat germ near the end of the toasting. I added 3 T. raw flaxseed meal with the warm liquids (raw to preserve nutrients). Dried cranberries, walnuts or cashews, and a few chocolate chips were a hit combination in my other recipe. I will try homemade candied orange peel, dried cranberries and a little dark chocolate for the holidays, reducing sugar in the basic recipe. In another recipe, Hobbit Seed Cakes, which got me to the finals in a whole foods cooking contest, I used honey, oats, sesame seeds and dried apricots and drizzled melted dark chocolate over the top. Those were part angel, part devil, but at least healthier than candy (I hoped).

These were great!! I substituted soy nuts and puffed rice for the peanuts and threw in some coconut, flax seed and pumpkin seeds for good measure. The end result looked just like the picture, the bars held together really well and they were easy to make. Thanks for the recipe!

Hello, I just want to say I love this recipe and have made it many times. I am allergic to nuts so I love putting sunflower seeds in the recipe. It’s such a wholesome food for my children and we are all just crazy about it! I’ve even got a few friends that I’ve given the recipe to. Thanks for sharing!

Kerry-Lea, sorry I’m late to respond…but I tried to keep the ratios the same for the peanut butter and jelly. So the peanut butter replaced the butter to increase the protein and keep the fat relatively equal, and the jelly replaced the honey (1/2 c.). And they did stay together well. It was homemade raspberry jam from my mom, so not sure how the ingredients compare, but hope it works for you.

I just finished making these, they are cooling but I keep picking off the edges! It’s delicious!!

I did make some changes, so I thought I’d share. I used flax instead of wheat germ because it was in bulk at winco and therefore cheaper. I also left out the dried fruit because my boyfriend can’t stand them. And I used a combination of crushed up unsalted peanuts with whole almonds. (Mostly almonds)

If you haven’t tried this recipe, try it! It will save you money and it really doesn’t take too long at all 🙂

Awesome recipe. We make these all the time – my family loves them. The only problem is that they disappear so fast! Our family needs to be mindful of saturated fat, so I substituted canola oil 1:1 for the butter. I also cut the sugar by half and they are still very sweet.

I like to cut these up into bars, then put them on a cookie sheet (not touching) and freeze them. When they are well frozen, you can put them in a bag and then back into the freezer right away; they will not stick together. If you like your granola bars crunchy you can eat them right out of the freezer, or let them thaw for a bit to get the chewy texture. Great for the kids’ lunches. Thanks for the recipe!

Hi:
I’m late to reading this but I made a recipe without butter, without brown sugar and only 1/2 cup of honey (blueberry honey actually.) I used 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and used sugarless, saltless peanut butter. About 3 tbls. You can also toast the nuts in a greaseless non-stick fry pan but not too hot.

It makes the bars vegan friendly and cuts out a lot of extra fat and sugar you don’t need. Add a bit of safflower oil if you want the oil.

Using calories from a calories website i did some simple math. The total batch has roughly 3903 calories. So when cutting these down for yourself if you are replacing store bought, you want to aim for making between 20 and 24 bars. These are so much better for you then store bought and calories aren’t everything but unfortunately they do count. I found the best way to do this was to actually make two pans, that way each is thinner over all. This makes getting 24 bars far simpler. I have included my math below for those interested.

I just made the granola bars and I have 2 comments: (1)I first tried to toast the dry stuff in the oven, stirring every 5 minutes at 350 for about 30 minutes, but nothing happened, so I moved it to the stovetop; that worked except the flax seemed to burn before everything else. What did I do wrong? Should I have used a higher temperature than 350? (2)after cooling, it was still crumbly; next time I’ll use more glue. What do you think?

Hey, I love the picture and easy to follow instructions, but you must know that by heating the nuts over 350 degrees farenheit you’re turning all those good polyunsaturated fats into trans-saturated fats… not so healthy :S

especially if you plan to add flax seeds, you must know this! sunflower seeds, peanuts, flax, all full of poly’s that will turn right into trans.

try baking them at 350 or lower. it takes longer, but if you’re looking for healthy, it’s kinda neccessary.

I used sesame seeds instead of the sunflower seeds, which was initially an accident, but turned out so dang good I’m going to have to do it again. Sesame seeds really boost the protein content, but they also up the fat considerably (I used this recipe analyzer to figure out my nutrition data: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/recipe_analysis.php). I also substituted wheat bran for the wheat germ. With that same substitution on the next batch, I could probably cut down on the syrup some. My next plan is to try maple syrup instead of the honey and to use dried blueberries. They’d be blueberry pancake granola bars.

my husband has now made these with raisins, dried blueberries, dried mango, chocolate chip/peanut and peanut butter — not mixed together, but a new batch every weekend and we all love them! He does not use the sunflower seeds. He runs regularly and needs the calories, as does my 11 year old daughter. I just think they are yummy 🙂
Thanks!!

I made these today and find them to be absolutely delicious. I was disappointed that mine didn’t hold together as well as those in the picture, but I’ll blame that on the type of honey I used (it was thin consistency cranberry honey). Next time I’ll use the thick local honey I have available.

I accidentally cut out the brown sugar (maybe that was part of the stickiness problem) and am glad I did because they are sweet enough without it for me. I added dried cranberries, replaced peanuts with cashews, and excluded the sunflower seeds. I also added a little bit of apple granola I had on hand. It all worked together well and was super easy to put together. Yay for not having to buy expensive granola bars anymore! These are healthier too.

muy excelente! These are SO tasty, and good for you, and easily half the price of the store bought ones, which I have always looked at with suspicion as to their real nutrive value. I thought they were a tad too sweet – next time I’m going to delete the sugar, but toss in a few semisweet chocolate chips into the glue. I used locally produced dark honey, and I’m going to buy raw wheat germ for the next batch – I used Kretchmer’s toasted, and it does not make sense to toast it twice.

I made these last night, and also made some alterations. I used Splenda Blend brown sugar,as I have bags of different alternatives on hand from myown testing. (this made the “glue” rather dark, but still good). I also added dried cranberries, blueberries, apricots, and some raisins. I cut back a bit on the sugar and the honey. After toasting the oats, which I added sunflower seeds to, I added the coconut and mini chocolate chips, rather late, as I was doing three things at once, so my choclate chips did not melt. I also added soy peanut butter to the “glue”, as my kids can’t take peanuts to school(I may have to dump the sunflower seeds as well). Anyway I cut them up this morning and they were very good. I cut them into bite size squares and my son ran off with the container. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. With three kids of my own, and quite often double that with friends, if I can give them something healthy, that doesn’t come in a shiny package and they love it, HURRAY!

Can I just tell you how wonderful these are? I am thrilled that I ran across this recipe! I have 9 children and am always on the lookout for something filling and yummy for school lunches. In the last week I’ve made 6 batches! Thanks so much!

I just made these. Delicious, and a hit with *both* my two-year-olds – a difficult achievement indeed. I didn’t have sunflower seeds, and switched out the crushed peanuts for slivered almonds. For fruit, I used 1 cups chopped dates, 3/4 cup raisins and a handful of dried cranberries. They were a little sweet for my taste with all the extra fruit. I’ll definitely try the sunflower seeds next time.

thanks so much for this idea! i am in the middle of trying it but have made some alterations. I added wheat germ and flax seed and used a little molasses for binding because I didn’t have enough honey.

I am trying these for the 1st time today. So far, they look great. But they haven’t cooled yet, so I await the final result. I snipped some “dried plums” into my mixed fruit (don’t tell my kids that they are really prunes), and I think that may add sweetness, so may need to back off on the other sweeteners. Does anyone have any experience with using “dried plum” as a sweetener replacement (i.e. a puree of such), would it work in granola bars? Too weird??

Question for Diane–did you have trouble w/ your chocolate chips melting? Mine look all melty, but maybe it will not be a problem once they cool.

Question for Emily (that’s my daughter’s name, too!)–can you tell me the proportions for the peanut butter and jam (PB&J!) substitutions. I could probably figure it out, but why reinvent the wheel.

Emily, no idea how they freeze… I can’t imagine there would be a problem though!
Your variations sound so good. I agree about it being a bit on the honey-sweet side. Did the peanut butter and jam really help it stick together? What a good idea!

I made 3 batches in the last 2 days just to experiment. They are so good! I hate sunflower seeds as a rule, so I use flax seeds instead and they have a great naturally toasty flavor. And I find the honey a bit overpowering so I’ve been trying ways to decrease that while still keeping the “glue” consistency. I modified with peanut butter and raspberry jam to replace the honey, used almonds in place of half the peanuts, and dried apricots, with some oat bran thrown in since I had it on hand. That’s my favorite so far. Then I used almonds, toasted coconut (1 c.), with just a reduced amount of honey. Good but still honey-strong. I think next I’ll try some coconut milk with just a few tablespoons of honey. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this recipe, and the photos are fantastic.

Excellent!! I have made 6 batches this summer. The original recipe is good but it is so easy to personalize it. I made peanut and chocolate chip ones for the kids. I loved the walnut, cranberry, lemon rind, and crystallized ginger ones. The toasted coconut, almond, and cranberry were good too! A delicious, quick, healthy snack – I will never buy bars again.

A couple tips – put them into cookie sheet for thinner, crispy bars or try a 9×9 pan for thicker, chewier bars…both are good. I hate to turn on the oven in the summer so I toasted the oat mix on the stovetop in a large skillet. Put the oats and nuts/seeds in first then add wheat germ toward the end of toasting as it burns easily. Keep stirring them so they all get toasted without burning. The vanilla is optional depending on the other flavors that you use. You really don’t need to spray the waxed paper, it has never stuck to mine. I do wrap them individually for easy access and freshness.

For Lindy who wanted a printer friendly version. I copied the whole recipe and pasted it to a Word document, then went through and deleted the pictures one at a time. It was much faster then cutting and pasting the individual directions. It also made sure I didn’t miss any instructions. Next I highlighted the whole word document and changed the font from normal (web) to normal. That made it so the whole recipe fit on one page. Now that I’ve printed the recipe, it’s time to make some granola bars for me!

I found your recipe very simple, and indeed healthy. I just tried it out, and I licked the remains off the pan till it looked ready to go right back on the shelf!

I wanted to add my 2-cents worth:
I began making the granola and only half-way realised that I neither had brown sugar, nor butter. So I looked into my cabinet and pulled out jaggery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggery and http://www.pbase.com/digitalfestival/image/56360922). This is a product made either of sugarcane or of date-palm. The kind I used was very dark brown and I think it is made form date palm with a superb depth of taste. As far as the butter went, I decided to take a chance do without it.

AND… much to delight it works perfectly without the butter! So those of you wanting to shave off some more calories, can make this without the butter (provided you’re using jaggery, I suppose)

I am making this recipe, with my own variations, of course, this weekend, and will try to post how they turned out soon afterward. Looks/sounds absolutely wonderful!

I am replying to Lindy’s comment posted in May:
Just copy and paste all the words that you want to use, from the recipe, into Word (or whatever word processing program you have). Then, print it out. Hope that helps.

I just made a variation of these. I didn’t have oatmeal but had the Bob’s Red Mill 5-grain hot cereal, so I used that. No peanuts except shelled ones, so I used finely-chopped walnuts. I didn’t have sunflower seeds, so I used some flax meal and some wheat bran. I also used toasted wheat germ and raisins. In the wet ingredients, I increased the butter a little bit and used dark brown sugar. I also added about 2 tbsp. of blackstrap molasses for iron. When I melted the sugars, I let them carmelize with the butter and the flavor is unbelieveable. They are still hardening, but I ate what was left on the spoon (which hardened quickly and well, maybe because I cooked the sugars a little longer?) and the results are amazing. THANK YOU for this recipe!!! It lends itself to all kinds of variation!!!

I love sneaking healthy supplements into my childrens food and have two with anaphylactic food allergies so now want to find a non-soy protein bar for one of them. I think this recipe will do it with a few modifications. I much prefer maple syrup to honey and plan to add whey protein powder, flaxseed oil, dried cherries and dark mini chocolate chips to this recipe. I can’t wait to try it tonight (and get my 9 year old son to help) and will repost his reaction. Thanks so much.

Your recipe looks awesome. I’m allergic to peanuts so I’ll prob substitute almonds instead. I’ve been looking everywhere for a good granola bar recipe. Have you tried making it with agave? Agave is a natural sweetener that some people use in lieu of sugar. I’m trying to cut out sugar in my diet completely and found that a lot of the granola bar recipes out there use honey and brown sugar.

Thanks so much for this recipe. I’ve been searching and searching for a Granola recipe and one for bars without High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m glad I found this recipe. I’ll be making it tonight with some minor fruit/nut changes for our road trip!

These are so good. I found out that if you want to put nuts or whatnot on the tops of them, it’s best to scatter them on the bottom of the pan. They don’t stick so well to the top.
My favorite variation uses toasted coconut, dried cherries, dried strawberries, dates and cashews. Thanks for the recipe.

Thanks for the fantastic recipe! I’m allergic to gluten so I made a gluten-free version by using gluten-free oats (http://www.onlyoats.ca/only-oats) and substituting flax seed for the wheat germ. It’s so satisfying to have homemade gluten-free power bars!

My kids, ages 9 and 3, are madly in love with granola bars, but I cringe at the thought of all the HFCS. I can’t wait to make these with my oldest daughter, who is fast becoming a little foodie herself. These will be a huge hit on the last day of school next week!

I substituted ground Flax seed for the Wheat Germ, 2 C Bob’s Red Milll 5 Grain Rolled Hot Cereal(whole grain rolled wheat, rolled rye, rolled oats, flaxseed, rolled barley and rolled triticale)for the Oats, and 2 C Target’s Raw Almond, Cashew and Dried Cranberries Trail mix for the Fruits and Nuts. EXCELLENT! Now if I could just get them to stick together without so much sugar.

Oh, thank you for this recipe! My husband has bad reactions to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) but needs good handy snacks when his blood sugar drops. These look wonderful and the pictures are great! I think I’ll try to make several batches of these and freeze them. Thanks again!

Hi 🙂 I saw these posted on Tastespotting and they were just what I was looking for, so thank you. I made some last week and they turned out great, perfect for my mid-afternoon pick me up snack 😉
I think I will take out the vanilla next time though and maybe add more honey instead of sugar, as they were a bit too sweet, still tasty though.

Hi- This recipe sounds great but it would be so helpful to have it published in a printer-friendly format!?! I would love to add it to my recipe book but didn’t what to print it with all the pictures! I will have to hand write it out. 🙁 Just a thought…

I made these this afternoon and they were great. I used minced crystallized ginger instead of dried fruit, which I love but might not suit everyone’s taste. I also subbed slivered almonds for the peanuts and flax seeds for the sunflower seeds. I loved the texture of the flax seeds and will definitely use them again.

I also stacked a pile of heavy cookbooks on top of the finished mixture because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to press down hard enough. It compacted everything nicely and saved me some work!

I just found your blog through stumbleupon and am loving the design, nice and clean and simple. The recipes are looking nice as well and can certainly see myself making some of them in the future. I am actually looking for people with excellent food photos who want to share them with the world and interact with other foodies. I started by blogging myself about a year ago and was frustrated that not enough people were seeing the quality content I had and saw huge potential for people to share their food photos and videos with a bigger audience and ultimately drive more traffic back to their own site. Check me out at http://www.ifoods.tv and let me know what you think and keep up the good work on the blog!

Kris: How about using puffed wheat instead of oats? Or a mix of puffed rice and puffed wheat. The puffed wheat is a bit more tender than the puffed rice so they wouldn’t crumble, but they might crush a bit…

I’ve got to try these, I guess I know what I’m going to be doing tonight!

Thanks for the great recipe! I’ve been making my own granola for ages, but I’ve never made bars! I just whipped up a batch, which are now cooling, and it is taking alot of willpower to wait for them to cool!

I added 3T of unsweetened fresh ground peanut butter to the wet ingredients as well as a tsp of cinnamon. I also used cashews in place of peanuts, unsweetened coconut, and for dried fruit – cranberries & apples. YUM!

Mmmmmm….. The boy and I were thinking of getting some nice granola bars for breakfasts but I think I’ll try this instead. I think I can get some lovely bulk ingredients including flax probably at the Food Co-op. Love that place. Is it really cheaper in the end?

Ok- I am so glad to see this recipe. I always have problems with the baked granola bars because they seem to burn on the edges while the center is still “raw”. So I can handle the toasting part and heating the other things in the saucepan. I will have to try these. We have nut allergies so I am happy that this can be modified. Nice pictures too!

Kris – I’m not sure, but I was thinking about (for the next batch) reducing the oats and using some puffed rice cereal (like rice crispies) in its place. Probably anything similarly textured would work though.

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Hi! I'm Emily Chapelle, and this is my family. Over the last few years, I've worked hard to simplify and streamline my homemaking, so that I can spend more time, energy, and focus on the people who really matter most.

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